Little Camp of Horrors
by balletangel19
Summary: Agumon feels neglected as Tai leaves for soccer camp. They get a bit more then they bargained for.
1. Chapter 1

**As Tai leaves for an important soccer camp, Agumon feels neglected and plans to do something about it. They get a bit more than they bargained for.**

 **Going by the English Dub**

 **A couple of original characters.**

 _ **Spoilers for Digimon Adventure Tri**_

It's been six months since the defeat of Ordinemon. Tai Kamiya thinks about how his life has changed while he packs for a soccer camp (why does he always wait until the very last minute?) While much remains the same, he still goes to school, plays soccer, and chills as much as possible, his life direction has changed. He's been attending cram school two, sometimes 3 times a week. Who would've thought just a few months ago that laid-back, carefree Tai, who put little effort into school work before, would ever attend cram school? While he's not attending it as much as some other students, his attending to improve his grades and to try to get into a decent college. Before, he wasn't sure he even wanted to further his education, now, after the sacrifice and death of his beloved teacher and mentor, Mr. Nishijima, Tai's ready to create his own future, whatever direction that may lead.

He also hoping to get a soccer scholarship to pay for college. This camp is a big step towards that. Much pressure is involved here, and Tai has worked long and hard for this.

The biggest change in Tai's life, however, is that his digimon partner, Agumon (as all the partner digimon), are now 'stuck' in the real world. It's been an adjustment having Agumon and Gatomon (his sister Kari's partner) here permanently, especially on the food bill, curtsey of Agumon mostly! However, they wouldn't have it any other way.

While Tai thought he'd been making enough time for Agumon, the orange dinosaur has been thinking otherwise.

"Do you really have to go to this soccer camp Tai?" asks a distressed Agumon, sitting on the bed.

"Agumon," Tai looks at him; "I've already told how important this camp is."

"More important them me?"

"Well no;" answers Tai; "but as I said, this camp could be the key to getting a scholarship to pay for college. The best coaches from the best teams will be there. I can't pass this up."

"Are you sure I can't go with you?" Agumon ask for the umpteenth time; "I'll pretend to be a stuffed toy, like always."

"It's not that simple Agumon;" answers a disappointed Tai; "I've thought it through over and over, but I'm bunking with 40 other guys in one big room, hiding you would be nearly impossible. Besides, I'm going to be busy the whole time."

"You're always busy it seems. I hardly see you anymore."

"What are you talking about?" ask Tai; "We hang out every evening, on weekends, and afternoons when I'm not busy. We could hang out in the mornings if you'd wake up."

"Then why don't you wake me?"

"You told me to quite doing that, remember? Not like you'll actually get up that early."

"I take that back;" Agumon crosses his arms and keeps sulking; "It's just that, since I'm living in your world now, I thought we'd spend so much more time together. Between school and soccer and this cram thing, I hardly see you. I thought we were going to spend this whole break together."

Tai huffs; "Oh Agumon. It's only for 3 days;" Tai tries to sound cheerful; "Then, we'll spend the next two weeks just hanging out. We've got that food festival and carnival next week, and the grand opening of that new cheesecake factory giving away free cakes! You've been looking forward to those. And Matt and TK are picking you up later to play with Gabumon and Patamon, and Izzy and Tentomon will be joining you. And Kari and Gatomon will take you out with them tomorrow to meet up with some of the others. Mom and Dad will be here, you love going grocery shopping with Mom. You'll have a blast."

"Yea yea;" Agumon turns towards the wall; "I'll be the only digimon without my partner. That'll be lots of fun."

Tai's feeling a little frustrated; "Agumon please, you're making this difficult."

"Good."

Tai places his hand on his digimon; "Believe me buddy, if I could take you I would. I really want too. I do."

"Tai;" calls his mom, Yuko; "Are you still packing, you're going to be late. Come get your breakfast. I'm making pancakes, fried eggs, bacon, and sticky buns."

Agumon's eyes light up and he leaps for joy. Tai smiles; "There's nothing like food to cheer you up, as he always says."

As the guys fight over the remaining food, Kari and Gatomon shake their heads. No matter how many times they've seen it, it never ceases to amaze them.

"Shaggy and Scooby have nothing on these two;" says Gatomon.

"Tell me about it;" agrees Kari, as Agumon greedily shovels the last of the fried eggs and sticky buns in his month, Tai's face turns red and he gives Agumon a neggie.

"Hey, some of that was mine!"

Agumon swallows and pats his belly; "Not anymore they're not."

"Why you."

Kari and Gatomon stare at each with sweat drops on their faces. Some things never change.

"Tai, let's go;" calls his Dad, Susumu at the front door.

"Agumon, are you sure you don't want to go with us;" ask Yuko; "We're all going to see the cherry blossom trees after we drop Tai off."

"Nah, I'd rather not;" answers Agumon with a clear distress in his voice; "No fun without Tai."

"We're not that boring are we?" asks Susumu.

"Ok dear;" says Yuko as she picks up one of Tai's bags; "Well Agumon, stay put and don't completely clean out the covers. We'll be back around lunch. Stay safe."

Kari and Gatomon say bye and go out the door. Tai goes over to Agumon, who turns away.

"Come on buddy, at least give me a hug."

Agumon shrugs; "I will if I can go with you."

Tai huffs; "Ok, be that way."

Agumon relents; "Well, I might as well humor you."

The pair share a hug, and Tai heads for the door. "Hang in there buddy, I'll be back before you know it."

Agumon turns away again, crossing his arms. Tai sieges and leaves. After a moment, Agumon gets up and goes out on the balcony. He can see the family loading up. He sniffs and goes back inside. It's not that he doesn't understand that everything Tai's doing is for all of them, even soccer camp. Still, he misses his partner terribly. If Tai would spend just a little more time with him.

Something then catches his eye. Tai left his duffle bag behind.

"Tai," ask his Mom; "where's your duffle bag?"

Tai's mouth drops open; "Oops, I knew I forgot something."

"Go get it."

Just then, Kari arrives with his bag.

"I got it. Geez Tai, how much did you pack? It's only 3 days and you only need soccer clothes."

Tai quickly grabs it and throws it into the trunk. Was it heavy? Too quick to tell. But then again, it should feel a bit heavier to Kari then it would him. Tai takes one last glance at his apartment window as the car pulls away. He wishes he could move the mountains right now to take Agumon, but it's just not safe for him. People in general still don't trust digimon.

The car pulls into the parking lot where the rest of Tai's teammates are waiting. Before he can grab his bags, two of his teammates snatch them; "Hey, those are my bags!"

"Well you're late and we're in a hurry. Come on Tai, everyone else is on the bus."

Tai says good-bye to his family and gets on the bus. Coach Hino checks him off and he takes a set. Turns out, he's not the last to arrive. One more guy is late. He arrives 2 minutes later, the doors close behind him and the driver starts the bus.

"Where were you Wayne?" asks one of the guys; "You're usually one of the first to arrive. Tai's actually not last for once."

Tai sticks his tongue out at his teammate.

"I set my alarm for PM instead of AM;" explains Wayne.

"You knucklehead."

"Sit down;" calls out Coach Hino; "I got some details to go over."

"I thought we went over all those already." Wayne then notices what appears to be a girl sitting up front. It's Coach Hino's 9-year-old niece, Katherine, with her nose in a book and headphones in her ears, as usual.

"Hey Coach, what's she doing here?"

Tai's surprised. He hadn't noticed Katherine when he got on board.

"I thought she was going with her Dad this weekend;" says Wayne.

"Yea well, that fall through;" sieges Coach Hino; "Anyway, all you guys know just to let her be. She won't bother any of you if you don't bother her. And if she gets up and stretches, just let her do it. Don't touch her, don't mess with her. Am I clear on that?"

Coach Hino looks at all the guys with a stern look on her face. She's extremely serious. All the guys answer in agreement. She goes over a few basic rules, including the top food credit limits each player has when they stop for lunch. She also tells them that security has been strictly tightened around the sports complex due to "odd disappearances" in the area, and that nobody is to leave the grounds at any time, period.

Tai raises an eyebrow; "Odd disappearances? What kind of odd disappearances."

"Oh didn't you hear;" replies Wayne; "Half a dozen hikers and campers have gone missing this past week."

"Really?"

"Yes," says Timothy, one of the other guys; "At least that's what I've heard. No trace of them, no witnesses, nothing. Very odd indeed."

"Yea, maybe some giant man-eating plant got them;" they looks at Wayne; "Or maybe flesh eating zombies, or maybe alien abductions, or a demon clown called It. Just a rumor going around. The first person to disappear was some eccentric botanist. His lab was destroyed. They say his specialty is carnivorous plants."

Timothy rolls his eyes; "Wayne, you've been watching too many scary movies."

"Well, they couldn't cancel the camp this late of noticed, so they've put in some strict security. They've even got police there patrolling the camp. It's going to feel like prison."

"No it won't doofus. Not like we'll have much free time to go exploring the woods anyway. Oh;" Timothy jiggles his pocket; "got my coins for the pay phone. Phone receptions supposed to be bad, if any, out there. You guys got yours? Sorry, no borrowers."

 _Oh No!_ Tai left his change at home. Oh well, not like he'll really need to call home, but his family would like to hear from him, he'd especially love to talk to Agumon. Maybe he can borrow some change, or maybe he'll get phone reception. It's not like anything serious, other than soccer, is going to happen.

 _Giant man-eating plant._ _What lame a suggestion. I'd much rather hear that digimon were attacking again._

 _ **Reviews appreciated**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Of course it's my job to retrieve all these balls;" grumblings the sport camp grounds keeper, "why don't they have the kids retrieve them, they kick and throw and hit and everything else them out here. As if I don't have enough to do already."

He picks up what he assumes is the last of the balls, and heads towards where he left the cart, only it's not there. This can't be right, it was by this tree just a minute ago. As he stands there scratching his head, he spots the cart some several yards away, next to a large bush.

"Now I'm sure I didn't put it over there." The keeper goes to get the cart, but as he tries to move it, it seems stuck; "What the?" He tries harder to push it, then it seems to go the other way and flips him over, landing on his back. The cart tips over and the balls spill. The keeper, who fortunately isn't hurt, lies in a daze for a moment, then slowly gets up, rubbing his back.

"OW! Jeez. How did that happen? I'm too old to be doing summersaults."

That's going to leave him sore for a while. He looks at the cart and huffs. Now he has to pick up all those balls again. At least they're all in one place this time. As he starts, one balls starts to move. He goes to grab it, but it keeps going, not rolling, but as if being dragged.

"You've got to be kidding;" the keeper runs after the ball as it's dragged into the large bush; "Alright you kids, enough playing around!"

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"Give it back Rico! GIVE IT!" Some of Tai's teammates are wrestling one guy, trying to get Timothy's phone back. A little over an hour into the trip, this is the second time that Rico has taken somebody's phone and made a prank call on it, this time making fun of Timothy's girlfriend, right before losing service. Coach Hino finally gets Rico to hand it over.

"Why of course ma'am, I'd be delighted."

Coach snatches it from him; "Go back to your seat Rico, and stay there. One more time and you're standing up front for the rest of trip. Is that clear?"

"Yes ma'am;" replies Rico rather snarly. Coach points to his seat and he takes it, with a smug look on his face. Coach then hands the phone back to Timothy.

"How dare he;" Timothy says to Tai and Wayne; "Great, no service. Now my girlfriend probably thinks I've insulted her and I can't call her back and explain."

Tai shakes his head, not knowing what to say. Rico is one of the so-called pranksters on the team, except some of his "jokes" and "pranks" can be down-right mean. He even tried to prank Kari once, which Tai didn't take to kindly too, and he hasn't bothered her since.

Tai starts to turn his attention back to the peanuts that Timothy had brought, only the trio have finished them all.

"Why didn't you guys bring snacks;" ask Timothy.

"We forgot;" Tai and Wayne both answered.

"I wonder if we can get any from the coolers in the back;" wonders Tai. Before he can get up to check, however, another of his teammates comes up front.

"Coach, we've got a problem. There's no more snacks in the coolers."

"What do you mean?" ask Coach Hino.

"I mean that the coolers back there are empty. There's a bunch of empty wrappers underneath the seats."

"Already? That can't be." Coach gets up to inspect. Tai, Timothy, and Wayne also get up and follow. She checks the empty coolers and is shocked.

"I can't believe this. You guys finished them all already?" All the boys shrug their shoulders.

"I swear they were mostly full a half hour ago;" replies one of the guys.

"I swear;" says Coach; "I know some of you guys eat a lot, but this is ridiculous. We've hardly been on the road for an hour. And we're not stopping till we stop for lunch. You boys really need to learn some self-control."

"That's like, a couple of hours!" says Tai; "What are we supposed to do till then?"

"Really Tai;" replies Coach Hino; "A couple more hours won't kill you."

Tai sighs and goes back to his seat with Timothy and Wayne; "Can you believe those guys back there. They could have at least offered to share with us."

"They must have been ravenous;" says Wayne; "oh well, let's ask some of the other guys if they have snacks to share."

As Coach Hino talks with the Assistant Coach, Katherine emerges from her seat, with her headphones still in her ears, and starts stretching.

"Hey guys look;" says Timothy; "Katherine's got her hair down, and she's in normal clothes."

Tai hadn't taken noticed before, but yes, Katherine is in normal casual clothes. Usually when she comes to the field to wait on her aunt, she's in pink or tan tights and a black leotard underneath gym shorts and a light jacket. Her hair is usually in a bun, and she carries a gym bag with a dancer stiletto on it. Tai remembers hearing that she takes dance and gym classes. Sometimes, he'll notice her playing with a soccer ball by herself. Usually, however, she has her earbuds in and her nose in a book while she waits on her aunt.

Rico decides to take this opportunity to see what Katherine's reading. He picks up the book in her seat and laughs loudly. The he shows Tai and some others.

"Jurassic Park? What nine year-old girl reads Jurassic Park, and in English? What a freak."

A couple of the guys laugh, but Tai is offended; "That's not funny Rico."

"Oh and look at this;" Rico continues; "she's listening to somebody called Garth Brooks. Who the heck is that? An American cowboy?"

Rico then notices Katherine looking at him, with a stoic face and her arms crossed.

"Give it back to her Rico;" comes the voice of Coach Hino."

"Oh yes ma'am. Of course." Rico slowly hands the book to Katherine, with a smug look on his face; "I believe this is yours." Katherine grabs it, slaps Rico on the head with it, and turns back to her seat.

"OW! Hey, that's hard cover."

Coach Hino grabs Rico by the ear and takes him to the front of the bus. Tai and his friends are stunned.

"Man, I can't believe he did that, to a girl. Rico can be such a jerk."

"I know dude;" agrees Timothy, "if he wasn't such a great player and teammate on the field, I wouldn't put up with him."

"I have to admit though;" says Wayne; "it is particular for a girl to be reading Jurassic Park, especially while still in elementary school."

"Maybe;" replies Tai; "who knows? Maybe she likes dinosaurs."

"I think she dose actually;" says Timothy; "I've seen her with dinosaur books before. With all kinds books actually. Coach says she loves to learn. I've heard she's very smart."

"She must be;" agrees Tai; "Did I hear him say she's reading in English?"

"Why surprised Tai?" asks Wayne; "Coach knows English. Maybe Katherine dose too."

"How would you know?" asks Timothy; "I've never heard her talk."

 _I wonder if she'd like Agumon;_ wonders Tai, _Like that's going to happen anytime soon, if ever. I wish we didn't have hide our digimon. I wonder how Agumon's getting along._

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"Those trees aren't as pretty this year, sorry to say;" says Gatomon as the Kamiya's return home.

"They do seemed kind of sparse right now;" agrees Yoka; "we did have longer than usual winter. The rest will probably bloom later."

"At least we got to go to the cherry blossom market and get their special sponge cake;" says Susumu; "these goodies should cheer Agumon up."

"Food always does;" sighs Gatomon.

"Agumon;" calls Yoka; "we're home."

Agumon doesn't come. Kari and Gatomon check Tai's room. He's not in sight. Maybe he's playing hide and seek, not unusual for him, except his hiding place is usually given away by a trail of cramps or drips.

"Strange;" says Yoko, "the place seems spotless." Yoko checks the covers and fridge; "Hmm, doesn't look like any food's been touched since we left. That's never happened with him before. I wonder if he's feeling alright."

"Sadness should make him eat more;" says Kari.

"So does happy;" adds Gatomon; "and everything else."

The family looks around the apartment. There seems to be no sign of Agumon. He's never hide this good before. Within minutes, they start to wonder if Agumon has wondered off somewhere, which he does sometimes. The digimon aren't supposed to wonder the streets by themselves (even though they do). Agumon tends to get into more mischief then some of the others, usually food motivated. They start calling and texting their friends and digimon. No one has seen him. They look around the block, but they can't really call out his name. After half an hour, the Kamiya's are getting worried.

"You don't think he might have gone with Tai do you?" wonders Susumu.

"How?" ask Yoku; "We left him here, and he can't get under the seats. We would have spotted him."

Kari then remembers something; "Wait. I ran back up here to get Tai's duffle bag. The bag felt rather heavy. You don't think…"

"Even Agumon wouldn't do something that crazy;" Gatomon doesn't believe what she's saying, and everybody looks at each other.

"Call Tai!"

"I'll try dear;" replies Susumu; "He may have little to no service out there."

"I'll call too;" agrees Kari.

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The bus stops at a park-like rest area. Most of the boys hurry off and race towards the rest rooms, Tai being one of the most impatient as well as quickest, is the first to make it. The two ladies, Coach Hino and Katherine, are much more patient. Rico, however, decides to linger on the bus, and snoop. A phone starts ringing, there must have reception here. Rico smirks as he finds the phone and answers it.

"What's uuuuuup?"

"Ah Tai;" answers a female voice; "Are you there?"

Rico clears his throat; "Ma'am, this is a recording. If you'd please hang up and redial your number later, you may get the person you're looking for at no additional charge. This is a recording."

"What…..hey! Who is this? Put Tai on….." Rico hangs up. He then decides to take the prank further. He hits redial. The same girl answers; "Tai, is it you?"

"Hello baaabaa. Got a message for you." Rico then burps and makes armpit farts, then hangs up. He then decides to take the batteries out of the phone, then places it back on the seat. He finds three other phones on the seats and does the same with them.

"I'm a ba-a-a-a-ad boy."

After restroom breaks and stretching, the soccer team checks out the five food stations, including an American style truck and a dessert station.

"Hey Lame Wayne;" informs Timothy, "Why don't you be adventurous for a change. Check out that #8."

This #8 is a 2-pound burger patty topped with fried mushrooms and onions, smoked bacon, melted Swiss cheese, jalapeños and a mustard chili sauce between two huge sesame seed buns.

"Good grief! Are you kidding me? No way! I'll stick with a classic cheese burger with just lettuce and light ketchup. Absolutely no onions, tomato, pickles, mayonnaise, or mustard."

"Wimp;" chuckles Tai; "I believe I'll try it. How about you Timothy?"

"I think I'll try #13, the Luther Burger, or donut burger."

"A what?" ask Wayne.

"A double bacon and cheese burger, except it's between two glazed donuts instead of buns."

"What? GROSS!" Wayne's face is turning green; "I can't believe they even have something like that, much less eat it. Who thinks up this stuff?"

"Hey Tai;" comes a voice from behind; "Bet you can't stomach that #8."

"Yes I can;" replies Tai; "I can eat two of them."

"Challenge?"

"You bet."

"Oh no;" says Wayne; "Here they go again."

5 minutes later, Tai wins the challenge, finishing both giant burgers. His teammate only makes it to one and a half before he starts throwing up. Tai doesn't throw-up, but still has a stomach ache from eating too much too fast. Meanwhile, Katherine's on the other side of the parking lot, doing jumping jacks, cartwheels, leg lifts, full splits, and a dance routine. She finally settles down and eats a small fish taco and blue berry and strawberry yogurt parfait she brought from home. She then takes out drawing paper and colored pencils and starts sketching. When it's time to return to the bus, Tai's still reeling from his stomach ache.

"You going to make it Tai?" ask Timothy.

"Yea;" Tai slowly gets up and starts walking. They pass Katherine and Timothy sees her drawing; "Wow. Look at this."

Tai looks. Katherine notices and pulls her picture towards her chess.

"No;" says Tai sweetly; "We'd like to see it. Can we please see your drawing? We won't laugh."

Katherine relents and slowly lets the guys see her drawing. It's a perfectly good drawing of a T-Rex.

"WOW! That's great Katherine;" comments Timothy; "Is that the T-Rex from Jurassic Park?"

Katherine nods and smiles shyly. Tai smiles back; "That's awesome Katherine. Do you like dinosaurs?"

Katherine gives a thumbs up and speaks; "My favorite is Tyrannosaurus Rex. You know the word Rex means king, as in King of the hunters. That's silly because the females are believed to have been much bigger and stronger. It should be 'Queen of the Dinosaurs.' Tyrannosaurus Regina. That's accurate."

"Fascinating;" says Tai; "What else do you know about the T-Rex."

Katherine seems surprised; "You really want to hear it?"

"Sure."

Katherine starts chatting about the T-Rex. Timothy and Wayne can't believe it. They've never heard Katherine talk. In fact, they've never seen her interact with anybody other than her Aunt.

"Amazing;" says Wayne; "How did he do that?"

While all this is going on, Coach Hino is in an argument with the owner of the burger truck.

"What do you mean we owe you for another ten burgers and loaded chili-cheese fries?"

"I mean look at this order lady;" he shows her; "The little guy took it without paying?"

"What little guy?"

"The one just over 3ft tall, wearing the blue raincoat and a doctor's mask."

"You must be mistaken, sir. There's nobody in our group matching that description. Why are you bothering me about it?"

"Your group are the only people here. Somebody's going to pay for it."

"These too;" arrives a lady from the dessert station.

On the bus; Tai is sitting next to Katherine, listening to her describe the dinosaurs in her illustrated Dinosaur encyclopedia. Usually he's not interested in knowledgeable stuff, but Kathrine's passion and enthusiasm for dinosaurs is making him interested. Agumon's a dinosaur-type digimon after all, a kind of T-Rex type at that.

Coach Hino storms on the bus and blows her whistle. Everybody gives her their undivided attention. She holds up the receipts.

"I warned you guys about ordering over your lunch credit limits. I had to pay for ten extra-large burger and fry meals and 10 desserts. I don't know who did this, and I'm not going ask who did. But I'm expecting full reimbursement by the end of the trip. No more of this! Understood."

"Yes ma'am."

As the bus starts, Coach Hino soon forgets her anger when she sees Katherine talking and Tai listening to her. She can't help but smile. Most people aren't interested in what Katherine has to say, it's so refreshing to see.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Kari and Gatomon meet up with brothers Matt and T.K., along with their digimon, Gabumon and Patamon.

"Still no word from Tai or Agumon;" ask T.K.

"No;" replies Kari; "All I got was some weirdo doing a bad operator impression and armpit farts, then hanging up on me."

Matt shakes his head; "Even Tai's jokes aren't that bad. Shouldn't be surprised that Agumon pulled a stunt like that. He's so much like Tai."

Patamon looks at Gabumon; "I don't know. I've stowaway and followed T.K. before, except T.K. knew about it."

"Don't know if I'd do that or not;" replies Gabumon; "Might depend on how much I was missing Matt."

"You guys aren't helping;" says Matt, "Are you parents going to go get him?"

"It's a 5 hour drive," answers Kari; "Mom and Dad said to wait until we hear from Tai. Dad called the camp and left a message for him. He'll most likely have to use the pay phone since there's zero cell service out there."

"Hope he remembered to take some change;" says Matt; "he always forgets something."

Gatomon sighs; "I just hope Agumon doesn't end up in 'too' much trouble, knowing him."

"Surely not any more than normal;" says Gabumon.

"They're doomed."

Kari's phone rings. Unfortunately, it's not Tai, but Izzy. He tells them that there's a news story from the town near the camp, saying that people from the area are missing. They all run to T.K.'s and get on his computer.

Patamon looks over T.K.'s shoulder; "What does it say?

"It just says that a couple camping and some hikers have gone missing. The couple's camp site is still up, but no sign of them. A couple of the hikers' backpacks have been found, a cell phone, a pair of sunglasses, and a couple of flip flops, but no signs of what might have happened to them. The only missing person whose identity has been released is a local botanist, Dr. Yutaka Yoshida. No further details being released at this time. Just warns local residents to be careful and to avoid going into the woods if possible, and if they must do so, not alone."

"And they're still holding the camps?" ask a shocked Matt.

"They've been holding camps all week bro;" replies T.K.; "The camp grounds are mostly fenced and secure. Everybody should be safe as long as they stay inside the grounds."

"Tai and Agumon better stay on their toes and not do anything stupid."

"Doesn't sound like the work of any digimon I've ever heard of;" says Gomamon.

"Just the same;" adds Kari; "I'm concerned. I don't know if I should more concerned with those disappearances, or more concerned about Agumon causing trouble."

"I'm more concerned about the latter;" adds Gotamon.

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The directors of the camp just learned of the disappearance of the grounds keeper. The cart, balls, and a shoe were found. They decided not to make this latest disappearance known to the campers, although they will warn the coaches. Nobody, especially the campers, are to leave the grounds until further notice.

After more than half an hour of wondering why their phones were blank, somebody finally suggest that Tai and the others check their batteries. They were all frustrated about their missing batteries, Tai saying that he knew he should have kept his phone in his pocket. After spending another 10 minutes of wondering and asking, Rico finally snickered and fessed up, giving everyone back their batteries. Only one of the 4 recognized his, leaving the other 3 spending around 20 minutes figuring out which battery belong to which phone. With no service, Tai doesn't receive any message signals.

The bus finally arrives at the camp. Other groups are also arriving and unloading, including a group from South Korea. Some of the guys are so big and muscular that they look like they should belong on an American football team rather than soccer. They must go check in, then there will be a short orientation, warm-ups, and finally drills will begin. The teams are allowed to take their gym bags only, the rest of their luggage will be taken to the dorms.

Rico, as part of his punishment, has been assigned to unload the luggage, as well as collect all the trash on the bus. He's just throwing all the luggage on the ground, in somewhat disarray. He comes across what looks like a big stuffed toy. He grabs it by the leg and holds it upside down. It looks like an orange dinosaur.

"What's this? One of those big plush toys. Feels like real skin;" Rico shakes the 'toy' and laughs, not noticing that Agumon's face is grimacing with pain; "Must be Katherine's. Wait, what's that noise?" Rico lifts Agumon up to his ear, listening to the rumbling from his belly; "Ha, sounds like this little guy's hungry. What a weird toy. She's weird anyway."

Rico tosses Agumon onto the pile of luggage; "OW!" Rico looks at him again; "Freaky stuffed toy." He finishes unloading the bus, throwing other bags on top of Agumon, then gets onboard to collect the trash. Katherine arrives to collect her bags. She's freaked out by the fact that somebody not only touched her bags, but just carelessly threw them. Her body starts shaking and she hyper-venalities a little. She takes deep breathes and tries to rap her head around it. Rico sees her and sticks his head out from the back.

"What's wrong with you?" Katherine's stunned stiff, still breathing hard; "It's not like I hurt it. Just get it. You are such a dork!"

Katherine's not fazed by that remark, she's used to it. What she's not used to is somebody being so careless, especially with "her" things. She pulls herself together and makes herself go through the pile. After a couple of minutes, it seems as if something's moving underneath the bags. Removing a couple, she spots what looks like an orange tail. It moves back underneath the pile. She moves more bags and reaches for the tail.

"Oh, Tai Kamiya;" says the reception clerk; "We've heard so much about you. Looking forward to seeing you in action."

"Oh, why thanks;" replies Tai, somewhat flattered.

"Oh;" the clerk looks at her notes; "There was a message for you. I don't seem to have it. Just check with the front office after you're finished."

"Ok, thanks;" Tai get his id tag, he's surprised by that. Who would be leaving him a message with the front office? If it was an emergency, he's sure they would've told him. He'll just have to find out what it is later. He must take his seat for the orientation.

After getting settled in the room she's sharing with her aunt (counselors' quarters right off the main bunk room), Katherine enters the cafeteria with her empty backpack. This is her 3rd time to these camps grounds and she knows her way around. She finds the snack tables and starts stuffing snacks into her backpack, specifically the more junk food types, even though she distaste nearly all this stuff herself. One of the assistant mangers spots her.

"Hey girl, that's an awful lot of snacks for just you isn't it?"

Katherine freezes and slowly turns around.

"Well, hello Katherine Hino. Welcome back. How are you doing?"

"Oh, hello Coach Shingo;" she replies nervously.

"You know those boys should be getting their own snacks, do ya?" ask Coach Shingo; "The next time they try taking advantage of you, come to me. I'll take care of them."

It takes Katherine a couple seconds to realize what he meant; "Oh yes sir. Of course."

"So, what have you been learning about?"

Katherine hesitates to answer at first; "Sir, oh yes. I'm reading Jurassic Park and Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary. I just read the diary of Rutka Laskier. They call her the Polish Anne Frank. I'm also studying about the eruption of Krakatoa from 1883, the day the world exploded, and its child, Anak Krakatau."

"Wow, girl, you're going to be a walking encyclopedia when you grow up, literally." As if she isn't already; "How's dance going? Have you made the competition team yet?"

"No sir;" answers Katherine; "I can't try out until I'm 10, next year. I was a party child and a herald in the Nutcracker this past December."

"Oh yes. I remember you telling me you were auditioning. So thrilled for you. Are you on toe shoes yet?"

"Not for at least another two years." Katherine catches herself. She really doesn't need to chat away right now. She finishes stuffing the backpack. "See you later Coach Shingo."

"See you later Katherine. Tell your aunt hello. And remember what I said about those guys using you."

"Yes sir;" she quickly run out before another word is spoken.

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Two players from the softball portion of the camp are busy hitting 'long drives'. Deciding take a break, one suggest that they take a hike in the woods and look for birds nest.

"I don't know bro. We're not supposed to leave the grounds. What about if we disappear too."

"We're not going to disappear. We won't go far. Believe me, it safe."

"How are we going to get pass the guard?"

"Leave that to me."

Making sure the police guard's back is turned, the boys use a ball and a bat and hit the guard in the shoulder. They barely rush past him when he spots them and runs after them. After ditching the guard, the more cautious one says they should go back.

"Aw come on. We're already out here. Let's explore."

A half hour later, they've failed to find any birds nest, at least any they could reach. They hear someone calling for them. It's two police guards looking for them. They stay hidden.

"Why don't we just go with them? We'll already be in trouble."

"If we sneak back in unnoticed, we can blend in and maybe they won't spot us."

The guards turn a different direction, and the boys start to head back. Suddenly, they both trip and fall flat on their faces.

"Hey, watch your step."

"It wasn't me, it was the tree."

"What tree?"

"This one."

They look up, but what they see doesn't look like a tree. It looks like a giant Venus fly trap about 8ft. high and very sharp teeth. It wraps its long vines around them, and starts dragging them both towards it. They boys scream out in terror. The police guards arrive with their guns ready, and start shooting at the plant. One guard hits the vine holding one of the boys, causing the planet to loosen its grip just enough for him to escape. The guns run out of bullets, and the other boy's almost a goner. His companion finds a large, heavy log and ask the guards to help him. They lift the log and throw it. It hits the vine and the other boy manages to escape. Only now, the plant's got one of the guards. Having sent out the distress call via their radios, other police officers arrive, ready for attack.

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The players are all warmed up and ready to start the first drills. Tai actually feels butterflies in his stomach. Usually, he's never nervous at all, but seeing these big deal coaches, as well as how excellent some of these other guys are, are making him just that. He goes through he's usual mental preparation as he lines up for his first drill. _Just routine, that's all this is. Just me, the ball, and them._ Despite his nerves and the obvious talent of many of the other guys, Tai ends up in the top 5 in all of the drills, top 3 in half of them. After 3 hours of drills, some of the coaches already want to talk to Tai, a couple even giving him confident boosters and tips for tomorrow. Tai exhales in huge relief. That first round was really intense. He's so glad to have it out of the way. He's now more excited for tomorrow.

The players rush to their assigned locker rooms and hit the showers. Tai finishes his and reminisces about the day's events with his teammates.

"Man, did you see those Korean guys? Their like rockets."

"I know man, they'll be tough to beat."

"This is a camp guys, a camp to test our skills. No W's or L's here count."

"A camp that could make or break our futures."

"Don't worry guys;" assures Tai; "we'll beat them. And even if we don't, we'll sure have fun trying."

Rico, who's all business during soccer, returns to his cheeky attitude and teases some of the guys about some of the things about their luggage.

"Who cares that I have a pink bag?" snaps one of the guys; "You should mind your own business Rico!"

"That pillow pet doesn't belong to me!"

"Those stickers on my bag are my sister's!"

"That wasn't a purse!"

Most of the guys are amused and giggling, until it pertains to them that is. Tai's putting on clean clothes and not paying much attention, until Rico's next comment.

"You guys should see this stuff dinosaur of Katherine's, assuming that it's hers. It looks like a baby T-Rex with long arms and a short tail. And it's orange. What a stupid color."

Tai nearly chocks on his saliva and drops his gym bag. That sounded just like Agumon.

"Tai, you alright?" ask Wayne.

"Ah, ya. I'm fine;" Tai tries to shake it off and picks up his bag. Surely it must be a coincidence. It'd better be.

"Oh yea;" laughs Rico; "and it makes strange sounds. It sounded like its tummy was growling! Maybe it ate all the snacks from the coolers ha?"

Tai drops his bag again. _No, it's not a coincidence._ Barely remembering to grab his shoes, he takes off.

 **What do you'll think. Really would appreciate a review or two.**


	4. Chapter 4

**See if you can notice something interesting in the middle of this chapter.**

 **Chapter 4**

"I can't believe he did this;" a panicked Tai says himself; "Oh Agumon, why? Why couldn't you just wait?"

It took Tai awhile to locate the dorm cabins, he even asked for directions twice and still couldn't find them. Once locating the dorms, he then had to determine which one his team was in (why hadn't he paid more attention to the handout). After checking 2 cabins that had no luggage he recognized, he finally realized that the team names and schools where marked on the doors (oh duh). Hopefully, Agumon hasn't wondered off to any other place, but it's likely that he has.

Sometime during all this, what sounded like a sonic bomb was heard, and the ground shook. Tai noticed, but was too preoccupied to really pay much attention. He'd heard that there was a military base nearby, so it must have come from there.

Another sonic bomb occurred just a few minutes later, again, Tai didn't pay much attention to it.

Tai found his luggage on the bed marked with his name (another duh). He dumps out his bags, but doesn't find Agumon. He looks under the bed, and several others, no Agumon. He looks in the closets and bathroom, no Agumon. He keeps calling out his name, still no Agumon. Tai tries to resent the temptation to look in the other guys' bags. Surely Agumon wouldn't still be hiding in a bag by now.

Tai hears some musical sounds coming the other side of a door. The sign says "Counselor RM #1". This must be were the adults (and assumedly Katherine) are staying. It sounds like a musical tap rhythm, with some music playing along with it. Katherine must be tap dancing, if Tai's memory serves him well from school talent shows that that's what the sound is. Tai puts his ear to the door. Definitely sounds like tap dancing. The door is locked, not that Tai would actually open it up on her. Tai starts to knock, but decides against it.

"Nah, I'm don't need to bother her." Then Tai feels his stomach growl; "The CAFETERIA! Of course. That's were Agumon would have gone."

Katherine finishes her tap dance, and nearly passes out. Agumon's sitting on her bed, clapping and cheering; "Come on more. I want to see more!" Agumon had asked what ballet, tap, and jazz were, and Katherine decided to show him. What had started out as a demonstration turned into a full-fledged performance. Agumon was amused by Katherine's movements and wanted to see more, and more, and more. He especially loves the tap. Katherine LOVES to dance, but after 13 full dance routines in a row, she's worn out and about out of breathe.

"Take….five;" Katherine barely breathes the words and plops on the bed. She's sweaty, her hair's a mess, and her cheeks are very red. Agumon realizes he went overboard.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Kat. I was enjoying it so much I didn't want it to end. I didn't realize how exhausting it must be."

"It…..is….." Katherine says between breathes; "but…..so….worth it."

"You must enjoy dancing the same way Tai loves soccer, and I love eating!"

Katherine seats up and nods, although comparing activities to eating sounds odd, even for a so-called odd person like herself. She decides to get out her dinosaur encyclopedia and show Agumon the pictures of Tyrannosaurs Rex.

"See, that's what you resemble."

Agumon looks and isn't sure what to think; "I don't know. I don't really look like that. I don't think my evolved forms look that scary. And why are its arms so sort? There's hardly anything there."

Katherine shrugs her shoulders; "Scientists are still debating that. She may have had no actual use for them."

"Now that's silly;" replies Agumon, "now where's Greymon?"

"I don't think there's an actual dinosaur in here like you describe;" she answers; "I don't know of a large carnivore that has 3 long horns. Although this does;" she show's Agumon the Triceratops. Agumon doesn't like the sight of those horns.

"Greymon definitely doesn't look like that. And I don't think I'd like to meet those horns. They look terrifying."

"They're supposed to be;" replies Katherine; "I'd love to see you as Greymon."

Agumon looks at her; "Ah, not so easy. I have to have Tai around, plus, there has to be danger."

Agumon notices that Katherine doesn't make eye-contact with him. It's like she's avoiding it. He then looks at the door and sighs; "When are they supposed to come here? It's been…..FOREVER."

"Drills should be over by now, but most of the guys won't be here until close to bedtime. After supper, they have motivational speakers."

"Sounds boring, and when is supper?" Agumon hugs his belly, which is empty yet again; "I'm STARVING!"

Katherine rolls her eyes. How can this creature, called a digimon, possibly still be hungry after all those snacks earlier? He seems to be a real-life Scooby-Doo and Shaggy! However, he sure is cute, sweet, and funny, and a good listener. She's never opened up to anybody so quickly that wasn't a dog.

Then Katherine gets a text; "Oh, I have to meet Aunt Nina for supper. I'll bring you some food back as soon as I can get away."

"Why don't you just carry me in your bag? Or like you would a stuff animal? I can help myself."

"You're too heavy for me to carry, Agumon.

 _Oh that's right._ Agumon often forgets that Tai used to couldn't carry him either. He and his fellow partner digimon have really been spoiled in recent years, in more ways than one.

"We'll, I'll put on a disguise, that's what I usually do."

Katherine shakes her head; "I don't believe that's a good idea. Most of these guys hate digimon, and Aunt Nina doesn't like anything alive, except dogs, some dogs anyway."

"BUT I'M STARVING!" Agumon flaps on the bed, hugging his stomach, and throws a slight tantrum, "and I want to see Tai. I MISS TAI!" Katherine learned a long time ago that tantrums don't work, not on her Aunt Nina or teachers at least.

"Give me 30-45 min. And I'll look for Tai while I'm out there. I'll bring him back to you. I promise." Katherine holds up her pinky, this time making eye-contact with Agumon. He doesn't get it.

"Why are you waving your little finger at me? Did I do something wrong?"

"Pinky swear. Give me your little fing…claw. This is sealing a promise."

"Oh;" Agumon holds up his claw, Katherine raps her pinky around it, and they shake on it; "Maybe I should try this on Tai."

Katherine quickly combs her hair and pulls it into a ponytail, blows Agumon a kiss and runs out. Agumon stares at the ceiling, rubbing his growling belly. As much as Agumon loves this world, one thing he does miss about the digital world is being able to roam free, not having to hide all the time.

"Why won't people trust us? I know some digimon are bad and have tried to destroy this world, I fought all of them, but we're not all like that. Why can't people see that? At least Kat does."

He lays there for a grand total of 5 minutes, then he can't take it anymore. He MUST find something to eat. But he promised Katherine that he wouldn't leave.

"I don't to want to break that promise, but I've got to do something. Maybe there's some snacks hidden in those bags."

Agumon decides to search through the luggage.

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Tai makes it to the cafeteria, and unusual for him, he's too worried to grab something to eat. Instead, he searches everywhere for Agumon. He doesn't find him under any tables or anything (and gets a few strange looks in the process). Nobody in here looks small enough to be him, at least until he spots somebody approximately Agumon's height, wearing a hoodie over their head and grabbing some milk. Tai rushes over to him and looks at the face; "Agu…;" it's not Agumon, it's a small child, who looks upset; "Oh sorry." Tai backs away before the child can start crying.

"Hey, who snatched my hotdog?" Tai overhears a guy say, looking down at his hand wondering what happened. Tai sees a gust of wind blow the table cloth and something moving underneath.

"Ah ha;" Tai crutches down and pulls up the table cloth; "Agum…;" again, it's not Agumon. It's a dog munching on the hotdog.

The dog looks at Tai and gets into a defense mode with the hotdog in its mouth; "Oops, sorry."

Tai keeps looking, even trying the kitchen, which he isn't allowed to enter. "Has anybody noticed any food disappearing?" The cooks and servers give him funny looks. Tai once again apologies and leaves. If Agumon's not here, where could he be? Tai passes an open meeting room with some couches. One couch has a blanket on it, and something approximately Agumon's size is moving underneath it. "Ah hah; now I've got you." Tai pulls off the blanket, it's another dog, strike three. She looks at Tai, sniffs him, puts her paws on his chest, and starts licking. "Hey, cut it out." As the dog leans forward, Tai's forced to pick her up. She keeps licking and wagging her tail. Not wanting to be rude, Tai sets her down and pets her for a couple minutes. Then something else seems to catch her interest and she runs out. Tai's face is covered with dog saliva.

"Yuck. What's with all the dogs around here?" Tai goes to the restroom, washes his face, and resumes his search. At a table, Katherine spots Tai and tries to excuse herself. "Katherine;" says Coach Hino; "Finish at least half of that sandwich before you go." Katherine takes three more quick bits of the sandwich, gulps some water, then gets up; "Excuse me Aunt Nina, see you back in the room." She takes off. "Katherine, come back here;" but she's gone. Nina Hino shakes her head. Getting a light, finicky eater like Katherine to eat at all is a challenge, she's usually too eager to get back to her reading or projects. She usually won't remember to eat at all unless Nina reminds her too.

Katherine tries to call out Tai's name and to get to him, but she keeps bumping into this crowd of teenage boys, plus they keep blocking her path. One guy accidently knocks her down. She can spot Tai leaving the cafeteria. Before she can get up, however, she feels something wet on her arm. It's one of the dogs, and he recognizes her from last time she was here. "Hello Baxter." Baxter, being a 150 lbs. German Shepard, gets on top of the average size 9-year-old girl and pins her to ground, wagging his tail fiercely, licking her like crazy.

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Agumon's going through the 11th set of luggage. All he's found editable so far is a package of Double Stuffed Oreo's that he's already consumed. He's done a rather poor job at re-stuffing everything back into the bags, or rather half-way stuffed.

"Aw come on. Don't these guys bring food with them?"

He's on his way to the 12th set when the door opens. Agumon freezes and drops in the middle of the walk way. Why hadn't he been paying more attention? He lays still as two teenage boys about Tai's age walk in. Agumon doesn't recognize these two, and he recognizes every member on Tai's team. They must be from another one. One of them walks straight for Agumon and tumble right over him, rolling the digimon on his back. The boy lands on his hands and knees.

"Whoa! What was that?" Both boys look at Agumon.

"Hey;" says the other; "What's this doing in the middle of the floor." He kicks Agumon out of the way, which isn't very pleasant, and the poor digimon slams into a metal bed railing; "OWF!" Neither boys seems to notice that sound.

"Hey!" goes the one that tripped over Agumon; "Somebody's been messing with my luggage! Look at this Marcus! Everything's wrinkled and disorganized. I had everything perfectly and neatly folded in here. Even my CD's are out of order. Who'd do this evil thing?"

 _What does he mean by evil?_ Thinks Agumon.

"Chill Thomas;" says Marcus, the one who kicked Agumon; "It's not the end of the world. My luggage is a mess too, but I'm not going to complain about it."

"Your luggage was already that sloppy anyway."

"Can it." As Marcus searches through his stuff, however, it's his turn to get upset; "HEY! Where's my Oreo's? Don't tell me somebody took them!"

"And ate them it seems;" Thomas finds the empty package on the floor.

"WHAT?" Marcus snatches the package; "This is unforgiveable! What am I supposed to do now?"

"Just do the hot tub without them," suggest Thomas, trying to reorganize his stuff.

"I CAN'T;" argues Marcus; "I can't relax without my Oreo's. It's not possible. This is a major crime!"

"Can it will you;" goes Thomas; "You've got to find some other way to relax Marcus, otherwise, you'll start packing on the pounds. Hey, where are, oh there they are." Thomas takes out a large bag of skittles.

 _What?_ Thinks Agumon; _How did I miss those? Is something wrong with my sniffer?"_

"Really Thomas, you're such a hypocrite."

"These are much healthier then Oreo's."

"Oh really? How….OWF;" Marcus accidently steps on Agumon's tail, the poor digimon's doing all he can to hold in the pain and not make a sound; "Didn't kick this thing for enough." He grabs Agumon by the tail and throws him. Hitting the wall hard with his head, Agumon screams; "OUCH! OWF!" The boys looks at him, but just shrug it off.

"Must be an animatronic;" says Thomas; "That's no way to treat somebody else's property Marcus. You have no respect."

The two exit the cabin arguing, Marcus slamming the door behind him. Agumon sits up, rubbing his throbbing head; "Ow. Maybe being out here wasn't my best idea."

Agumon's still rubbing his owes when the front door opens again. This time, it is a guy from Tai's team, it's; "RICO!" Agumon says in quite voice; "Not him again."

Rico takes off his still sweaty and smelly clothes and stuffs them into his duffle bag. Agumon can smell him from several beds down and holds his nose. _Phew You. HE STINKS!_ He then processes to put on fresh clothes over his stinky body. _Ugh!_ Even Agumon knows that's so unhygienic. He smells like strong sweat and; _What's that other smell? Smoke? Doesn't smell like steak or BBQ Pork smoke._

Thinking that makes Agumon's stomach growl loudly. Rico hears it and turns his direction. He follows the rumbling a few beds down and sees the digimon. Agumon freezes, with his hands on his stomach. He can feel nervous sweat drops form.

"Well well;" sneers Rico; "There it is again. Are you still hungry? Sounds like your motor is running." Rico picks Agumon up again by the leg. It hurts even worse this time; "Oh did Katherine leave you out here? She should know better to put her toys away. How do I turn you off?" Rico shakes Agumon worse than he did before. Then he starts poking him hard in the belly, mocking him. Agumon's blood is starting to boil. "Hey, why not;" Rico flips Agumon right side up; "I'll rip the stuffing and batteries or whatever's in there right out."

 _Say what?_

Rico pulls Agumon's arm, very, very hard. Agumon's had enough. He opens his mouth and bits Rico on the wrist.

"OWEEEEE!" Rico drops Agumon and clings his now puckered and bleeding wrist. "Wha…HEY! You're not a toy! YOU'RE ALIVE!" Agumon scrambles underneath a bed. Rico grabs a baseball bat.

"COME OUT FROM UNDER THERE YOU LITTLE FREAK! HOW DARE YOU TRY TO EAT ME!" Rico looks under what he thought was the right bed but sees nothing. "WHERE ARE YOU?"

The door then flies open. Tai had been almost back to the cabin when he heard the commotion. He sees that Rico has corned Agumon, raising his bat to hit him.

"What are doing Rico?" Rico is shocked and turns around.

"What does it look like I'm doing Tai? I'm trying to kill this little monster. He tried to eat me!"

"Are you sure?"

"Am I sure? Look;" Rico goes over to Tai and shows him the bit marks.

"Maybe he felt threatened;" Tai says with a forced chuckles; "Are you sure that it's alive?"

"Are you playing me for a fool Tai?" While Rico's yelling, Tai's makes slight hand signal, which Agumon sees and moves; "These marks are real! This pain's real! It's real! And why are you trying to defend it?"

"It's probably just a dog Rico; there's lots of dogs around here. Were you being mean to it, as you always are?"

"It didn't look like no dog to me. It looked exactly like that toy, or what I thought was a toy, I found earlier. And do these look like dog marks?"

Tai smells Rico; "Ew. Rico, don't you ever shower?"

"Not unless my mother makes me. I'm a REAL man! The rest of you are wimps. Wait, don't change the subject."

"Rico, is that, have you been smoking again?"

"Quit changing the subject!"

"Go take a shower Rico, unless you want everybody to know you've been smoking cigarettes, then you'll be off the team and expelled from school. See you later."

"CIGARS! Cigarettes are for wimps. What? Hey Tai. How dare you threaten me! What's going on here?"

Tai just walks outs and slams the door in Rico's face. As soon as Tai's on the side of the cabin, Agumon appears and hugs his leg.

"Oh Tai. Thank you so much, I was…."

"Later. Let's scram." Tai picks up Agumon and they dash for the trees. Katherine makes it just in time to see them disappear.

Agumon hugs his partner tightly; "I'm so happy to see again. I've had such a hard day."

Agumon looks up, smiling, but the look on Tai's face doesn't look like a happy one.

 **Did you notice a couple of names in this chapter? Marcus and Thomas from Digimon Savors (Digimon Data Squad). That wasn't them of course, I just threw it in at the last minute.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Tai's scolding Agumon somewhere in a wooded area. Tai's placing back and forth and yelling while Agumon sits on a log with a sad look on his face.

"I just don't get this Agumon. I told you I'd be back on Sunday. Why didn't you just stay home like you were suppose too?"

"I told you already Tai;" Agumon's sniffing and trying to hold back tears; "I miss you."

"That's not the point!" Tai's clinging his fists; "The point is that you deliberately disobeyed me. You've never done that before. Mom and Dad and Kari and Gatomon must be worried sick. You revealed yourself to RICO of all people. No telling what's he's going to do now. Plus, I now have to reimburse Coach Hino for all that food you stole, and probably for all those snacks you ate too."

Agumon's confused; "What do mean stolen Tai? I didn't still anything. I used credit."

"What do you mean credit?"

"I heard Aunt Nina talking about how everybody had food credit, so I used it."

Tai slaps his head; "Oh Agumon, that's not how credit works. Wait. What did you call her?"

"Call who?"

"Did you just call Coach Hino Aunt Nina?"

Agumon thinks for a couple seconds; "Oh yea. I forgot."

Tai feels like pulling the hair out of his head; "Agumon, you didn't! Don't tell me you revealed yourself to Katherine!"

"Ok, I won't."

"AGUMON!"

"It was an accident Tai. She found me in the luggage and grabbed me by the tail. She already figured out what I was and asked me if I needed help."

Tai's even more furious; "AGUMON! Do you realize what you've done? How are we supposed to get out this kind of jam?"

"Do you have to keep yelling at me?" Agumon's stomach roars like an angry bear; "Let's get something to eat. I'm FAMISHED!"

"Agumon, NOT NOW!"

"But I can't hold out much longer!" Agumon's hunger pangs are getting worse and he feels dizzy, "And I know you're starving too. We'll both feel so much better after a good meal and then we can talk, calmly."

"Of course I'm starving!" shouts Tai; "I missed dinner because of you."

"Way is everything my fault?" Hot tears are starting to come down the digimon's face; "It's your fault too. You're turning into Izzy at his worst. We never have fun anymore. When was the last time we really hung out? When you're not busy, you're studying or sleeping. And not just me, you've been ignoring your family too! When was the last time you had dinner with us? When was the last time you spend any time with Kari? What about Meiko? What about our friends? I don't even know where to begin there."

Tai's stress has reached its peak; "AUGMON, SHUT UP!"

Tai looks at his partner, who's now crying. Tai slaps his hand over his mouth, he can't believe what he just said. He sits down, clutching his head; "Oh no, what did I just say? What I have I done?" They both sit in silence for a few minutes, then Agumon collapses hunger and exhaustion, which Tai realizes is partly his fault. He gets up and leans the starving digimon against the log.

"Agumon, I'm sorry, I overacted."

"Not like you Tai;" replies Agumon in a weak voice; "Not like you at all. I miss the old Tai, the one who was always chilled and having fun."

Tai's at a loss for words. Have things really gotten that bad?

"Tai, Agumon, is that you?" Tai snaps his head over to see Katherine emerge from the trees. He's shocked to see her.

"Katherine, what are you doing here?"

She catches her breath; "I've been looking for you two. I heard you shouting. Might want to keep it down."

Tai feels dumbstruck; "Oh yea, you're absolutely right."

"Agumon;" Katherine dashes next to him; "Are you ok?"

"No," comes Agumon's exhausted voice; "Need food."

Tai's stomach also growls; "Ah yea, I think we'd better. I don't even know where we are?" Tai realizes he should have payed attention to where they had gone. "Can you show us back to the cafeteria Katherine?"

"Dinner ended about a half-hour ago?" she answers, "but just ask the ladies for the leftovers."

"You can do that?"

"Definitely; they always make too much food and are eager to get rid of the leftovers."

Agumon sprints up, jumps for joy, and speaks in his normal voice; "About time! Let's go!"

"Agumon;" realizes Tai; "You're not as weak as you claimed to be."

"Oops;" the digimon freezes; "Ok, I did play it up a little, but it was the only way I could get you to shut up so we could eat."

"Why you little….;" Tai pounces his digimon and gives him a neggie, then tickles him. Agumon laughs, then Tai laughs playfully. Katherine watches in amusement, that's kind of like how she used to play with her beloved dog.

"Now this is more like it;" gleams Agumon.

Tai picks up Agumon; "Ok. Let's go. You know the way don't you Katherine?"

"I know a short cut."

"Great."

As Katherine leads the way, Tai looks at his partner, who's nuzzling against his chest and smiling. When was the last time they hung out, last month at the Wolf? A video game here and there, but perhaps Agumon's right. When Tai started prep school last September, he went twice a week and it wasn't so bad. He still had time to play with his digimon and hang out with his friends on weekends and such. In January, soccer practice started back, as did preparations for this camp. Tai's been putting in extra drills and practice with this being his final year of high school and being examined by scouts and coaches. Plus he's had to put in extra time at prep-school and studying to pass his end-of-the year finals, which is always a stressful period. He's been arriving home late most nights, often so tired that he's just been passing out on bed instead of hanging out with Agumon and his family. If that wasn't enough, the past three weekends have been dedicated to soccer practice and preparation for this camp.

Agumon's right, Tai's been so busy, stressed, and frustrated he hasn't had time for them nor acting much like himself lately. What happened? What's Tai turning into? Way hasn't his family said anything, or have they? Yes, they have expressed concern. The only other one besides Agumon who's really called Tai out on it all was Matt, of course. Actually, Tentomon has also mention him working too much like Izzy. That was like 6 weeks ago, the last time he had seen the rest of his friends and their digimon outside of school.

"I wonder what's going on;" Katherine suddenly says.

Tai snaps back to reality; "What do you mean?"

Katherine points forward, there are police, military, and civilians surrounding something, plus the area looks like a bomb went off.

"Man;" wonders Tai; "What happened here?"

"Unless it involves food, I'm not interested;" says Agumon.

Katherine dashes towards the small crowd. Tai goes after her. She stops at a gap and sees what the something is, and her mouth drops in shock. Tai and Agumon see it too.

"What is that?" goes Tai.

"That looks…..creepy?" says Agumon.

They are looking at what appears to be a dead and ash-singed giant plant, with a large side oval shaped head and very sharp teeth.

"That looks like Audrey II;" says Katherine.

"Who?" ask Tai.

"From 'Little Shop of Horrors';" answers Katherine; "Only this one has fangs, hair, brown spots and fewer leaves."

"I have no idea what you're talking about?" replies Tai.

"Can we eat that?" ask Agumon.

"Hey you kids;" a solider calls to them; "This area's now restricted. You must leave."

"What happened officer?" ask Tai; "What is that thing?"

"Nothing you need to worry about;" the solider answers; "Now leave;" he points to Agumon; "Nice P.J.'s kid."

"Hah?" goes Agumon; "Does he think I look like pajamas?"

Tai and Katherine can't help but laugh.

Katherine wasn't kidding, the kitchen ladies were more than eager to give them the leftovers. They also begged them to take some boxes of donuts. "Apparently, our manager thinks that the half off deal means ordering twice as many!" They find an empty meeting room in the back. Katherine locks the door and props a chair underneath the lock, even though nobody should be coming here at this time of night. Tai and Agumon chow down while she looks through a book from the shelf. The two really talk for the first time in a while, and Tai realizes that his priorities have shifted.

"I'm sorry I've been ignoring you Agumon. I just feel so responsible for the future, for all of us. Mr. Nishijima trusted me, and I feel like I want to make him proud."

"I know the future's important Tai;" replies Agumon with his mouth full; "But what about the here and now? Living for today, making the most of every moment. You taught me that."

Tai smiles; "Yea, I think we taught each other. I guess it won't hurt to cut back some, I just feel so responsible."

"But you are responsible Tai. You don't need to be any more responsible. Everything always works out. We'll find the way as we always do."

Tai knows that's true. "Honestly Agumon, I'm kind of glad you did follow me, but I still don't think it's a good idea that you did."

Agumon's confused; "So which one is it?"

"It's just that it's not safe. What are we going to do about Rico? He's surely spread the word about you by now, and he'll be looking for you. Katherine's been dragged into this, and where are you going to sleep tonight? I can't hide you in the bunkhouse, you'll be discovered for sure. That's why I didn't want you to come."

Agumon shallows; "I'm sorry I've caused a lot of trouble Tai, but I don't regret coming here. Besides, we'll know what to do when the time comes."

Katherine looks up from the book; "I think I know where he can sleep tonight."

"Katherine, you've done enough already;" replies Tai; "you don't need to do that."

"I want to. I like Agumon. Besides, I know the camp grounds."

Tai sighs; "Well, I guess we have no choice. Say Katherine, you want anything before Agumon finishes it all off?"

Agumon, with his mouth full of donuts, gives Tai a smug look.

"No thank you. I'm good."

"Great!" Agumon dives into the rest of the food. Tai can't help but laugh.

"Hey Katherine, I really don't know anything you. What school do you go to? Where's your parents? What's your favorite color? What's your favorite TV show? Do you have other interest besides dance and books? What kind of music do you like?"

Katherine looks at Tai raising her eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry;" Tai apologies.

"Kat really loves to dance Tai;" answers Agumon; "She takes ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary and gymnastics. She loves to read about dinosaurs, dance, the Bible, volcanos, hurricanes and tornados (whatever those are); alligators and crocodiles (again whatever those are), Maria Tallchief and Anne Frank (whoever they are), and this book called Oliver Twist, have no idea what that means either. Oh, and Jurassic Park, which is about dinosaurs she said. At least those are the books she brought with her. She loves animals, especially dinosaurs, horses, and dolphins. And she loves country, classical, and gospel music, I guess she played some of those for me. So also loves musical theater. She goes to a school called Sacred Heart. She said her Dad didn't want her this weekend. Isn't that sad? And she's got 4 brothers."

Tai raises his eyebrows; "Good grief Katherine! What's with all interests?"

Katherine shrugs her shoulders; "I'm just intrigued I guess. I love to learn."

"Sounds like Izzy. Wait, you've got 4 brothers?"

Katherine nods; "I've never met Yamato or Koshiro. I've met Yuri, he hates me. Only Danny likes me. He lives with his Mom and older brother in Georgia. He sends me the American music and books. His favorite is Huckleberry Finn."

Tai's puzzled. Are all these half-brothers? Why wouldn't they like her? Maybe he shouldn't question her about them right now.

"Georgia, as in the state of Georgia in America?"

"Yes."

"I have an uncle and cousin in Georgia. I haven't seen them in several years. They used to come here every summer, but times got tough."

Agumon belches and pats his belly. Tai smiles, then something hits him; "Oh my. I'd better call home and tell them you're alright."

"Can I have some more donuts? And cookies?" Agumon licks his fingers.

"We'll see. I need to find the phones. Sorry to ask you for another favor Katherine, but do you have any change?"

A few minutes later, Tai's on the phone with his mom. Katherine and Agumon look on, the latter munching on more donuts and cookies. Tai then talks to his dad briefly, then Kari. She tells him how somebody else answered his phone earlier and the sick jokes.

"Rico!"

Kari them tells him about the news article, and that they should be careful. For some reason, Tai's thoughts shift back to that giant, sharp-tooth plant in the woods. Could it have something to do with the disappearances?

Katherine then takes them to a vacant cabin behind the bunk cabins. It's unlocked, which makes Tai a little nervous. "They're always unlocked;" assures Katherine. She turns on a lamp, but not the main lights, and makes sure that all the curtains are drawn well. The cabin's small, but cozy, with a queen size bed.

"Are you sure nobody's going to come in here?" ask Tai.

"If nobody's here by now, they won't be."

Agumon gets settled into the bed; "Are you sure you can't stay here with me Tai? I'm not used to sleeping alone."

"Sorry pal, but I've got to sleep in the bunks with the other guys. It's a rule. It's just a few yards over there, so we won't be far."

"What about you Kat? Will you stay with me?"

"Kat?"

"She said I could call her that."

Tai looks at her; "Nickname?"

Katherine nods; "Mostly just dance and Danny. And no Agumon, I can't."

Agumon's definitely sad; "Well, at least tell me a bedtime story, please."

Tai cringes. Bedtime stories definitely aren't his specialty. Yuko, Kari, and Gatomon always take care of that.

"Well, I could try, but you know I suck Agumon."

"You're right;" agrees Agumon; "Your stories stink."

"Hey!"

"What about you Kat? You know any good stories."

Katherine looks surprised. She and Nina usually take turns reading a book outloud at night, but sometimes…..

"Well, if you don't mind a little song and dance."

"That sounds interesting;" Agumon bounces excitedly.

"Ah, aren't we supposed to be quite?" ask Tai.

"I can do that." Katherine slides to the middle of the room, in just her socks; "If it's okay with you Tai, this is an American Story Country song. And since we both have relatives in Georgia, it's perfect."

"Ok I guess;" replies Tai; "Go for it."

Katherine starts out with a (soft) clapping beat, then moves her feet along with it, dose some choreography, then sing chats.

 _"_ _The devil went down to Georgia he was lookin' for a soul to steal  
He was in a bind 'cause he was way behind and he was willin' to make a deal  
When he came upon this young man sawin' on a fiddle and playin' it hot  
And the devil jumped up on a hickory stump and said boy let me tell you what  
I guess you didn't know it but I'm a fiddle player too  
and if you'd care to take a dare I'll make a bet with you  
Now you play a pretty good fiddle, boy but give the devil his due  
I'll bet a fiddle of gold against your soul 'cause I think I'm better than you  
The boy said my name's Johnny and it might be a sin  
but I'll take your bet and you're gonna regret  
'cause I'm the best there's ever been"_

She does more clapping and dancing, and now fully sings while moving. Tai and Agumon are clapping and bouncing along with her.

 _"Johnny rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard  
Cause hell's broke loose in Georgia and the devil deals the cards  
And if you win you get this shiny fiddle made of gold  
But if you lose the devil gets your soul"_

She goes into another verse, then a long section of clapping, dancing, and even (soft) drumming on the table. The boys are getting more and more into it, even though they don't really understand the story. Finally, she gets into the last part, singing, dancing, and clapping. She finishes it out with one last bit of beat and choreography, then makes her final pose.

The boys are clapping and cheering, especially Agumon. Katherine puts her finger on her lips, and they quite down.

"WOW, that was awesome;" comments Tai; "I was positive you could dance, but didn't know you could sing too."

"More;" cheers Agumon; "Just one more."

Tai tries to calm him down; "That's enough for tonight I think. We need to be getting back to the bunks. It's near curfew and I'm sure the guys are wondering where I've been."

"I need to get back before Aunt Nina starts looking for me;" agrees Katherine.

Agumon looks sad. He really wants just one more. Katherine understands this all too well.

"Maybe something a little softer to help you relax. How about Garth Brooks 'The Dance'".

"Don't know what that is, but I'm sure it's good."

Tai was going to say something, but Katherine breaks into a pretty, sweet song. It does seem as if she can't stand still, as she slow sways across the room.

 _"And now I'm glad I didn't know  
The way it all would end the way it all would go  
Our lives are better left to chance I could have missed the pain  
But I'd have had to miss the dance"_

Listening to the words, Tai thinks of the adventures, and the bonds with his friends, especially Agumon. True, they could have done without all the pain, fighting, and suffering, but then he never would have met Agumon, nor come close to the people (and digimon) who are now his closest friends and just like family. It's all well worth it.

By the end of the song, Agumon's asleep. They tuck him in, turn off the lamp, and tip-toe out of the cabin. Tai's relieved, but worried at the same time. Back at their cabin, several guys, and a few adults, are outside hanging out. He wonders if anybody's talking about Agumon. Most of Tai's teammates distrust digimon, how's he ever going to explain this off.

On the porch of the cabin, there's Rico talking with some other guys, or rather shouting at them. Tai can't believe the sight. Rico indeed has his right wrist bandage, where Agumon bit him, but he also has a bandage on his leg, several Band-Aids, and scratches all over him, including his face. Those didn't come from Agumon.

"Rico, what happened to you?"

Rico looks at Tai; "An aggressive cat, two dogs, and a boar. It all happened because I was out looking for that monster dino." Rico moves closer; "Alright Tai, where did you hide him?"

Tai can't help but have an amused look on his face and giggles; "Really Rico. Looks like you got in way over your head."

"Stop trying to make me look like a fool!" Rico still has his bat; "I hate being made a fool of. I'm always left out of everything. Now Tai, where is he?"

"Lay off him Rico;" says Timothy; "You're always pulling stuff like this on us. Plus the way you treat animals, and people, no wonder they attack you all the time."

"You guys always make a fool out of me;" shouts Rico; "Why do you think I'm so rude and crude. Can't trust anybody. You guys need to learn how to just take it and fight on."

"Rico;" says Tai; "Why can't you take that professional attitude you have on the field off of it too?"

Rico lefts his bat; "You think I do that for any of you guys. No. I do it for me. Soccer's all I have, you dimwitted wimps."

Somebody snatches the bat from Rico's hand. It's Katherine. She proceeds to slam it on the ground, breaking it in two. The guys can't believe what they've just witness. Tai really can't believe it, especially after spending part of the day with her. She's much tougher then she looks.

"Well;" says Rico; "So we've got some spunk do we. I outta."

Tai grabs Rico and slams him against the cabin; "If you touch her you'll answer to me, and to the rest of these guys." Everybody agrees.

"Sheesh Tai;" replies Rico; "I'm not going to harm her. I'm not that kind of a guy. I'd never lay hands on a girl, not unless they want me too."

Tai loosens his grip; "Just take that as a warning." A whistle blows. It's time for everybody to be inside their cabins. The assistant coach comes up the steps, "I don't even want to know. Inside boys, and settle down, or we'll be pulling you guys from the clinic tomorrow. Is that clear."

"Yes sir."

"And Rico, take a shower! And stay away from the animals. Good thing all their shots are up-to-date." Rico throws the top half of the bat aside in frustration.

"Yea, enough of this nonsense;" says Wayne; "I'd rather talk about that giant plant they found."

"You saw it?" ask Tai, he'd forgotten all about it.

"Sort of;" answers Wayne; "We saw it from a distance. The military didn't want us getting anywhere close to it. Man it must have been made of steel. It took the military two small missiles to kill it."

Tai's taken aback; "You're kidding?" That would explain why the area looked like a bomb went off, and why the plant was singed.

"Yea;" says Timothy; "Didn't you hear those explosions earlier? The guards and soldiers fought that thing for up to 4 hours. They lost two guards during the fight. Looks like Wayne's theory of a giant, man-eating plant was right. It ate people!"

Tai's feeling sick to his stomach. He can't believe what he's hearing. "People have actually, died?"

"Yea it seems that way;" answers Wayne; "They believe it came from the lab of Dr. Yutaka Yoshida, a botanist, several miles from here. They said he was banned from the scientific community because his plants drank human blood and tried to attack people, but they were much, much smaller than that one. They're supposed to be a hybrid of a Venus fly-trap and a Butterwort."

"YUCK!" Tai just manages to keep himself from throwing up. This thing sure doesn't sound like a digimon. At least he and Agumon don't have to fight it, but really, DEATH. Even the digimon have never cause the loss of any human life, not that he's aware of. "Can we quit talking about this?"

"I guess;" says Timothy; "Hey Tai, where have you been? You missed the assembly."

 _Oh no!_ Tai knew he forgot something. It was mandatory too.

"Don't worry about it;" says Timothy; "They weren't taking attendance. Rico and a few others cut too. We all know what Rico was doing of course. Anyway, we're here to impress those gentleman with our skills."

"And our dedication, character, and sportsmanship;" adds Wayne.

Tai just hopes that he hasn't lost points for not attending.

 **Note: Lyrics courtesy of Charlie Daniels "Devil Went Down To Georgia" and Garth Brooks "The Dance".**

 **The relatives in Georgia is a foreshadow to my next story; "Digimon in America."**

 **REVIEWS APPERICATED! PLEASE REVIEW**


	6. Chapter 6

Tai lays wide awake in his bottom bunk. He's having a real hard time getting to sleep, despite usually being a hard sleeper. He has no idea what time it is. Half of the other 40 something guys are up and about, chatting, laughing, playing cards and other "crazy" games, thumping, etc. Tai had participated earlier, but now he and the other half are trying to get some sleep. Some, like Tai, can't manage to get to sleep, and most of the dozen who are asleep are snoring incredibly loudly. None of this is new to Tai, he's stayed in bunk houses several times over the years. However, he can't remember it ever being "this" loud. Every time somebody says to "quiet down, they're trying to sleep", the louder it seems to get.

This is without a doubt the rowdiest bunch of guys Tai's ever been with. The college-aged assistants, however, are said to be even rowdier.

Tai puts his pillow over his head. _Maybe I should have stayed with Agumon._ He's been thinking about actually joining his partner, but every time somebody leaves the cabin, the night security catches them and brings them back. Plus, somebody would most likely notice if he was gone. Tai glances at Rico, who's in the bunk right next to him. Rico had fallen asleep hours earlier, as soon as his head hit the pillow, and perhaps the only guy who's actually asleep that's not snoring. Tai wonders how Rico or anybody coulc possibly sleep through all of this. Then again, there's much about Rico that Tai doesn't get.

Tai has no idea when he fell asleep, if he did. He's in the twilight zone that's for sure. The next thing he knows, he hears strange music, as if inside his dreams. The music gets louder, somebody is making rooster crows, and singing starts.

 _I hear the birds singing (rooster crows)_ _  
 _Now my alarm's ringing (rooster crows)_  
 _Get up, get up, hey (rooster crows)__

 _It's a good morning_ _  
 _Wake up to a brand new day (rooster crows)_  
 _this morning_  
 _I'm stepping, stepping, stepping on my way (rooster crows)__

"Hah?" Tai slowly opens his eyes, and thinks she sees two giant roosters parading around the cabin, one playing a banjo, the other singing, and both crowing. Tai's one of the guys who throws a pillow at them and pulls his cover over his head; "I must be dreaming." He's sure he hears somebody say; "I'm going to shot those roosters."

Twenty minutes later, a couple of Tai's teammates, one being Timothy, yank the covers off and pour a bucket of ice water on him. He springs up and yells at the sting.

"He-e-e-ey!" Tai's teeth chatter; "What's the big idea?"

"Up and adman Tai;" greets Timothy cheerfully; "We need to be at breakfast in a half hour. They brought some hot coffee and tea and donuts for us, you'd better get some quick." As a soaked Tai tries to get up, however, he can't move his legs. He looks down and sees that he's been saran wrapped to the bed, "Oh come on you guys!"

For Tai, this means one thing; WAR.

When Tai finally frees himself, there's nothing but donut crumbs left. There's no coffee or tea left either to his dismay.

"Jeez," Tai says to Wayne, who didn't get anything either "you'd think they'd be more considerate."

"Considerate; this group?" laughs Wayne.

Tai yawns and robs his eyes; "That's the truth, if last night didn't prove it. And that other team's worse."

"Yea," yawns Wayne; "but I hear that the college-age assistants are the worst, they like to drink! So do the coaches."

"By the way Wayne;" ask Tai, "did you see a couple of big musical chickens in here this morning?"

"You saw them too? I thought I was hallucinating from lack of sleep."

"Nah;" Timothy joins them; "those were a couple of the assistants in rooster suits. They do stuff like that."

"Just be glad it wasn't a beagle call or cymbals;" says a guy from the other team, "they did that to us last year."

A few minutes later Tai's dressed and goes out on the porch. He sees a groggy Katherine laying on one of the benches. "Morning Katherine, did you sleep well?" Katherine gives Tai a "you've got to be kidding" look. She might have been in another room, but her bed was up against the connecting wall she could hear and feel everything through the thin wall, especially the thumping, despite wearing ear muffs.

Tai yawns again; "I guess that was a stupid question. Did you get any donuts?"

Katherine shakes her head; "Too many butts in the way."

Tai can't help but giggle at that statement; "I'll make sure you get one at breakfast."

Katherine smiles; "Thank you."

"Well, I guess we'd better go get Agu….;" Agumon suddenly jumps on Tai's back, startling him.

"Good morning Tai!

"AGUMON! What do you think you're doing?"

"Waiting for you;" exclaims the digimon cheerfully; "Good morning there Kat. Did I see two giant chickens wondering around this morning? Are they our breakfast?"

"Agumon;" says Tai unzipping his bag; "Get in here before somebody sees you, if they haven't already."

"Sorry Tai, I'm just so happy to see you! I'm in a great mood. I slept great!" Agumon gets into the bag and Tai partly zips it.

"Wish I could say the same for us;" whispers Tai; "I'm happy to see you too, but your need to be quite for…..YIKES!" Tai barely manages to dodge another bucket of ice water, Katherine isn't so lucky.

"Guys, I'm awake;" replies Tai; "and it's a little early for that isn't it?"

"Says who?" replies his teammate. They apologize to Katherine and hand her a towel; "We're really sorry, you weren't our target."

"That's alright;" she replies; "it's just water."

"Ice water;" adds Tai.

"Buy the way Tai, what were you stuffing into your bag just now? An orange tabby cat or something? You were talking to it."

"Can we see it?"

"Ah no;" Tai tries not to show his nerviness; "Just a…."

"It's shy and we're taking it some place safe;" says Katherine.

"Oh ok;" says one of the boys. The other one raises his eyebrows.

Tai picks up his bag and he and Katherine jog away, leaving his teammates perplexed. Tai breathes a sign of relief and they slow their pace. "That was a close one. Agumon, that was reckless."

"Can we save the scolding until after breakfast?" Agumon asks from inside the bag. Tai can't help but smile; "You never change."

Suddenly, somebody tries to snatch Tai's bag from him, it's Rico. Tai holds on tight.

"Rico! What are you doing? Let go!"

"I know he's in there Tai!" exclaims Rico; "I saw you stuffing something orange into that bag, and don't tell me it's an orange cat!"

Katherine intervenes and tickles Rico, "Hey!" he laughs; "That's not fair." He loose his grip on the bag, then slaps the girl hard across the face. Tai's horrified and launches himself onto Rico.

"RICO, how dare you!"

"OPEN THAT BAG TAI! Or I'll tell coach what you and Katherine are hiding."

"Tell me what?" Rico and Tai stumble to their feet and face Coach Hino and the assistant coach.

"That your niece is helping Tai hide a monster!" Coach Hino grabs Rico by the ear; "I don't even want to hear it. You're in big trouble now Mister. Coach Sawano, take him to the main office. I'll be right behind you."

Nina them kneels down to her niece; "Are you alright sweetie. I'm so sorry you had to come here this weekend. And I'm sorry about him."

"It's fine Aunt Nina. It really is. I love it here."

After Nina hugs her niece and checks her over; she looks at Tai. "Tai, thank you for standing up for her. I'm not going to ask you what's going on or what's in the bag, but I trust that you'll take care of it, and Katherine as well. Promise."

"Yes ma'am;" answers Tai.

"And Katherine;" Nina looks at her niece in the eyes, no words need to exchanged.

"Yes ma'am."

"Alright. Now if you excuse me, I've got to do damage control."

Tai breathes a huge sigh of relief; "Man, that was too close. What a jerk."

"I'll fry him if you'd like Tai;" says Agumon.

"Please don't, has much as I'd like for you too."

At breakfast, Tai and Katherine are at the same table, along with Timothy and Wayne. Agumon's still inside the bag, underneath the table. Agumon has finishes all the food that was stuffed into the bag and is tugging on Tai's leg, waiting impatiently for more. The partners usually have the food sneaking routine down to a science, but today, keeping the curious and hungry dogs away is proving to a challenge. Even though it's probably not the best idea, allowing Agumon to hide underneath the buffet table will cause less suspicion with the dogs also hanging out around there. This isn't proving as much fun as it usually is for Agumon, with curious dogs and even a few cats inspecting him and snatching food. They aren't too fond of their food being snatched either. For once, Agumon's getting a taste of his own medicine.

Katherine keeps looking at the buffet area; "You think he's ok over there?" she whispers to Tai.

"He'll be fine;" whispers Tai, giggling.

"Hey, no whispering;" says Timothy; "I think Katherine's got a little crush on Tai."

Katherine nearly chocks on her eggs hearing that and gives Timothy a stern look.

"He's just kidding;" Tai assures her; "Relax."

"At least she talking to somebody other than her aunt;" says Timothy; "how can we earn that trust? We don't bit."

"Give her time;" replies Wayne; "Hey Katherine, you going to eat that donut?"

Her donut is just sitting there, she turns her plate so it's facing her; "Yes I am."

"Hey! You talked….to me!" exclaims Wayne happily.

"Hey guys;" says Tai; "I need a great prank to get at the other guys, although I probably shouldn't include you Timothy since you were part of it this morning."

"Hey!" replies Timothy; "None of it was my idea. I'm not even the one who saran wrapped you. I only joined in because I was out of bed and you weren't. You're always one of the last ones to raise Tai."

"As if we could sleep;" says Wayne; "Did you even go to bed Timothy? Your bed was empty even time I looked at it?"

As the two get into a 'discussion'; Katherine finally takes a bit of her donut and looks to Tai; "Can I help?"

"Sure, Agumon will help too, unbeknown to those guys of course. In fact, maybe we shouldn't include them."

Katherine giggles. Then she realizes that she just asked to take part in a prank. She's only done that when she visited Danny.

Soon it's time for the "games" to begin, short matches held throughout the day to observe the players. Each match will be timed at 30 minutes, and each team may play up to 8 before the day's done. Potential college or semi-pro recruits, such as Tai, will be selected to play a couple extra matches with each other. Tai has given Katherine and Agumon an assignment, in which he'll join them first during morning break then lunch break. Agumon's beyond excited, while Katherine is more reserved at first. Soon, however, she loosen up, reminding her of the fun she while visiting her brother last summer. If only Agumon would quit drinking the props. She even tells Tai that it probably wasn't a good idea to use coke if Agumon's only going to consume it all. Somehow, they manage to fix just enough.

After lunch break, the players and coaches are returning to the fields. Tai and his two co-conspirators are hiding behind one of the score boards above the blechers. Tai had originally wanted to do this inside the indoor gym, but Katherine talked him out of it, the clean-up would be much, much harder. Tai's quite impressed with the cat-a-pult they made. When Tai whistles, they load the first few balloons, filled with coke, and launch. The first few balloons don't hit anybody, causing a few surprised looks, however, soon people are getting hit left and right, mostly being caught off guard. Tai and Agumon are having a ball, even Katherine's having fun. They are smiling and giggle while watching the chaos below.

Agumon jumps into Tai's arms laughing; "This is the Tai I know. This is so much FUN!"

Tai agrees; "I can't believe it's been weeks since we've had this much fun. That's changing now."

"Agumon, Tai, someone's coming." Agumon quickly hides as Coach Hino and one of the camp managers finds them. The kids stand at attention while the adults give them stern looks. They are both soaked with coke, and Tai can't help but get out his giggles. Katherine's nervous and holds her breathe, she's never done anything like this before and doesn't know how her aunt's going too responded.

Coach Hino puts her hand on her hips; "Tai Kamiya, I'm not surprised. Katherine, I am at you."

Katherine can't speak, how did she let Tai talk her into this? Nina and the manager each pick up a balloon. "Next time;" says the manager; "use orange sola, it's much harder to get out." The adults throws balloons at the kids, direct hits. They look at each and start laughing, as do the adults.

"Alright you two;" says the manager; "you still need to clean up those balloon pieces down there. Sorry, but it needs to be done."

Tai stops laughing, he should have known this was coming, but it was so well worth it.

"Aunt Nina;" asked Katherine; "Am I in trouble?"

"You will be. Now go."

When the two of them step onto the field, several balloons are thrown at them, the ones the somehow didn't break when they landed. Nina goes to her niece and giggles; "I told you'd be in trouble."

Agumon watches from his hiding place. He's enjoying the show, wishing he could be down there getting them. Aside from some tummy gas from drinking all those sodas, he couldn't be happier. That was so much fun! The old Tai's back.

Agumon's also thinking he got spared from the worst of it, as he's perfectly dry. That is until Tai and Katherine return, take the last few balloons, and get him good.

During afternoon matches, Katherine goes swimming while Agumon watches Tai. Tai's spectacular on the field, as usual. Rico's also on the field, which is surprising. They had thought that Rico would be banned from participating. Being nosy, Agumon overhears Coach Nino and Coach Sawano talking. It sounds like Rico's grandfather was informed but demanded that Rico participate anyway. Aside from when he's turned loose on the field, however, he appears to be under strict guard the whole time. Except on the field, he looks and talks to nobody, except giving Tai angry glares whenever he gets the chance.

During a break, Tai's approached by a scout and coach from the semi-pros, and more want to meet with him as well. He grabs a Gatorade and warns Agumon to be more careful as he could easily spot him. Since he's starving, having gotten only a small lunch, Agumon decides to go raid the cafeteria, plus helps himself to an open vending machine that's being worked on. Afterward, he decides to see if Katherine's still at the lake. Sure enough, she's there, still swimming, along with some dogs. Dropping the overloaded armful of snacks he was carrying, Agumon calls out to her, waving his arms. She sees him and swims towards him.

"Agumon, what are you doing out here? It's wide open. Somebody's bound to see you."

Agumon looks around; "I don't see anybody. You having fun?"

"Yes. Agumon, can you swim?"

"Ah, yea. Why?"

Katherine grabs Agumon's legs and drags him into the water. "Hey;" he says shivering; "This water's cold."

"Not really." She splashes him, he splashes back. She dunks him underneath, and soon they are laughing, playing, and splashing each other. Before they know it, nearly two hours have passed, and Agumon's exhausted. He tries to get on Katherine's back as they exit the water.

"Agumon, you're heavy."

"Kat, I'm exhausted."

"You can make it."

Some dogs are raiding Agumon's snack pile, or what's left of it. He uses his Pepper Breath, taking three times to get the dogs away. Agumon stares at the now disarrayed trash and is dismayed, even sniffling.

"It's alright Agumon, we'll get more."

Agumon embraces her tightly; "Oh thank you thank you thank you."

Katherine smiles and pries the eternally famished digimon off her. "Why are you always so hungry Agumon? Do all digimon eat as much as you?"

"Ah, no. I mean, all we partner digimon love to eat, but everybody says I'm in a league all by myself when it comes to my appetite, even for a digimon."

"Yikes;" gasps Katherine; "How much do you need to eat?"

Agumon shrugs his shoulders; "I don't know. I usually run out of food before I can find out. Tai was able to stuff me once, but my appetite's surpassed that now."

Katherine doesn't want to know how much it must costs to feed him. "How many partner digimon are there?"

Agumon counts on his fingers; "Aw, about 12, yea 12. 8 of us were part of the first group, the other 4 joined us later. There's more around the world. Not sure how many."

"How do people get digimon partners?"

Agumon has to think about that one; "Honestly I don't know. Izzy once thought it was because Tai and the others had seen digimon, but it turned out that wasn't it. Cody once said that if that was true, everybody in Japan would have a partner! Something special about Tai and the others, I really don't know."

Katherine starts wondering what kind of digimon she would like, not that it would ever happen to her. However, it's fun to imagine. A dinosaur like Agumon, she loves dinosaurs. Maybe a horse, or a Pegasus, or a seahorse with wings. Silly, but it'll be fun to draw.

Agumon smells something, it smells so good. He follows the scent towards a thicket. Katherine snaps out of her daydream and sees him. "Agumon, not that way!" Agumon finds a delicious looking pizza, just sitting on the ground. His mouth watering, the hungry digimon dashes for it and gabbles it up. While licking his fingers, Agumon's grabbed from behind and a muzzle is quickly placed over his mouth, then he's quickly tied up.

"Got you!" comes Rico's voice; "I figured you wouldn't be able to resist food you ravenous dinosaur. I knew it had to be you raiding the cafeteria and the vending machine. You might not want to drop a trail of wrappers and crumbs and food dropping from your oversize pile. Tornados leave smaller trails then you do, you moron."

"Moron?" yells Katherine; "You're sitting in poison ivy!"

Rico scrabbles up, holding Agumon; "Ah jeez. I hope they have calamine lotion here."

"Let him go Rico!"

"I don't think so. Now I can show everybody that I'm no fool."

"Don't!" Katherine gets closer; "And I don't think those will hold him."

"What do you mean?"

Agumon manages to burn the muzzle off with his fire, then burns off the ropes, just barely missing his captor's fingers.

Rico freaks out, drops the digimon, and backs away; "You're a DEMON!"

"No I'm not;" replies Agumon; "I'm just a digimon."

Rico's shocked; "Wha…you….you talk?"

"Of course I talk." Agumon gets in front of Katherine, ready to protect her.

"You're a what?" replies Rico; "You're awfully small. I thought digimon were much bigger and a lot more destructive. "

"I can get much bigger."

"Rico, LOOK OUT!" screams Katherine.

"I'm not falling for any more of your tricks."

However, a vein grabs Rico from behind and starts dragging him away.

 **Note: Lyrics from "Good Morning" by Mandisa.**


	7. Chapter 7

Tai tries not to holler as the ice pack is placed on his foot. In the last match, the one in which only potential recruits play, a guy from the opposing team got turned around and was going the wrong way. In his attempt to turn back around, several players collided, including Tai. Players and even coaches were joking about how this isn't American football or rugby. Tai not only twisted his right ankle and bruise the top of his foot, he was hit hard in the stomach by the ball earlier. A very common thing in soccer, but it may have bruised or cracked his lower ribs and left an internal bruise in the upper abdomen. Not the worst pain Tai's ever felt, but somewhat uncomfortable. None of the injuries are serious and he'll be fine in a week or so, but the trainer tells him to keep ice packs on the bruises and to stay off that ankle for a few days. He's definitely bummed that he won't get to play tomorrow, but the recruiters said they have seen what they wanted to see from him and more, and they'll be keeping in touch. This is such good news and a huge relief to Tai.

Rico was also involved in the tangle up and was supposed to report to the trainer with Tai, but he hasn't showed up. Tai really hopes his obnoxious teammate hasn't sneaked off to look for Agumon, or Katherine. Speaking of which, Tai also hasn't seen his partner in a while. He knows he's been to the cafeteria because somebody said the kitchen had been raided. He intends to go there once the trainer allows him to leave.

222222222222222222222222222222222222222222

"Pepper Breath."

Agumon severs the vein dragging Rico, sparks hitting him in the process.

"Hey, which it you stupid dino!"

"My name's Agumon!"

"Whatever."

Rico runs towards Katherine while Agumon aims for the giant, sharp-teethed plant's bloom, to no effect.

"I thought they got rid of that thing!" shouts Rico.

"That's a different one;" replies Katherine.

"How can you tell?" asks Rico, "Wait, why are you still here? Run!"

"Yes Kat;" agrees Agumon; "Run!"

Agumon tries another Pepper Breath, only annoying the plant. It now has a hold of Agumon, rapping a vein around his mouth.

"TAI! Where are you! HELP TAI!" Agumon manages to get out before the vein muffles his month.

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Tai's still in the client, icing his foot, when he hears his digivice go off. He gets off the table, limps over to his bag, and gets it out.

"Agumon's in trouble." Tai starts limping out.

"Where do think you're going young man?" The trainer catches him in the hallway; "Get back in there and put that ice back on."

"Sorry," says Tai scrambling, "Gotta go."

"Oh no you don't." The trainer grabs Tai, hears the digivice, then sees it; "What's this?" He tries to snatch the digivice.

"No, you can't have it." Between the two of them, the digivice falls to the floor. Tai quickly grabs it; "Gotta run." He takes off as fast as his twisted ankle will let him.

2222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222

"Tai can't help you silly;" Rico tries pulling on the vein holding the digimon, to no avail. Katherine tries helping by hitting it with a stick.

"What are doing you crazy girl? Give me that stick and get out of here now!"

"I won't!" replies Katherine.

Rico pushes the girl out the way of thicker vein about to grab her, getting caught again himself; "RUN! NOW!"

Agumon manages to free his mouth; "Please Kat! RUN! Find Tai!"

Reluctantly, Katherine turns and starts to run. Unfortunately, the thick thicket slows her down, and a vein's right behind her.

"TAI! I need to digivolve! TAI!"

As Tai follows the signal, he hears the screams not too far away towards the lake. Turning that way, his digivice starts glowing.

As the carnivorous plant inches it's victims further towards its giant mouth, Agumon starts to glow, Katherine and Rico both noticing.

Tai looks at his glowing digivice; "Agumon's digivolving."

The glow around Agumon grows bigger and bigger, severing the vein.

"Agumon digivolve to…Greymon."

Greymon bits down hard on the veins holding the humans, freeing them, then turning his attention towards the plant. Rico's in stunned shock, mouth wide open and eyes bugged out, unable to move. Katherine stares in awe.

"Is that…Greymon?"

"Nova Blast." Greymon hits the plant and it falls over.

"Agumon, is that you?"

"Yes Kat. It's me."

Katherine smiles her biggest smile, then Greymon hollers in pain. Something burning has hit him. The plant is getting back up and shooting steaming acid from its mouth. It aims for Rico, Greymon blocking it with his tail, hollering in pain again.

"Rico, grab Kat and go!"

Rico snaps out of his trance and runs for Katherine, grabbing her wrist and tries pulling her. She's doesn't want to move.

"Come on you silly girl. You want to get flatten?"

She looks at the Greyman fighting the carnivorous plant, and reluctantly allows Rico to pull her along. Greymon tries bucking his head against the plant, it puts up a good fight and raps even stronger and thicker veins around Greymon. Every time Greyman manages to burn off one vein, two more seem to grab him. How many veins dose this plant have? He rips a vein from the plant, and finally sees that two more spring out from the hole. He tries biting the plant's head, the plant bits back and shoots more acid.

Rico collides with Tai as they exit the thicket, both falling into the shallow edge of the lake. "Tai!" Katherine hugs him tightly. "Katherine, where's Greymon?" She points, and Tai can see the heads of Greymon and the plant battling it out. "Another plant?"

"Yes another plant;" replies Rico.

"Rico, what are you doing here?"

"Trying not to get eaten!"

A big splash occurs. Greymon and the plant are in the water. In pain and running on fumes; Greymon musters every ounce of energy he can to stay in that form and uses his Nova Blast again. Getting some of blast in its mouth, the plant coughs, then shoots acid again, hitting Greymon and sending him falling backwards into the lake.

"GREYMON!" shouts Tai; "Hang in there! You can do it!"

Katherine then notices that the plant is still coughing, and smokes seems to be coming from it. She gets an idea. She runs into the water then swims furiously towards Greymon.

"Katherine!" Both Tai and Rico go in after her.

"Greymon!" Katherine shouts when she gets close enough; "It's mouth! Aim for inside its mouth."

Greymon hears her and struggles to get up, the plant once again on the charge; "Just one more time." Using every last ounce of his energy, Greymon strikes; "Nova Blast." His aim is perfect. The plant swallows the Nova Blast, coughing out of control and steaming smoke coming from within. Greymon collapse face down into the water and shrinks back into Agumon. The plant smokes to death.

"Agumon!" Katherine grabs the exhausted digimon and swims towards Tai. "Agumon, you ok?" Tai get hold of him, the only sound coming from him is a weak groan.

"Alright Tai;" says Rico; "Who is he and where did he come from?"

Tai snaps his head; he'd forgotten that Rico was there. He doesn't know what to say; "Later Rico. Agumon needs…owe!" A sharp pain comes from Tai's ankle. He puts down Agumon, sits, and grabs it tightly.

"Tai, what's wrong;" ask a concerned Katherine.

"It's nothing. Just a twisted ankle is all." The clever girl doesn't buy it. Tai's ankle is swelling up black and blue; "I'll get you something."

"That won't be necessary;" says Rico, reaching out his hand to Tai, who looks at him with confusion; "Do you want me to help you or not." Tai grabs his teammates hand, gets up, and Rico allows Tai to lean on him. Rico also picks up Agumon, and Katherine helps support Tai.

Aside from Katherine suggesting they should head for the cabins, they travel in silence, until a deafening roar penetrates the silence. Katherine and Tai look at each.

"Is that Agumon's stomach;" ask Katherine.

"Yes." They look at Agumon as his stomach growls again, and they both laugh. Rico stays silent.

They finally arrive at the same cabin that Agumon was in last night. They enter and lay a still passed out Agumon on the bed. Tai sits on the bed and puts up his ankle. It looks terrible. Agumon starts tossing and turning, crying out; "Food, food!"

"I'll go get food and an ice pack;" offers Katherine.

"Don't bother;" says Rico; "I'll get it."

Tai's surprised; "Are you sure?"

Rico gives a stern look; "Fine then, if that's the way you want it."

"Wait Rico;" calls Tai; "Sorry, I'd appreciate it. And thanks for your help earlier too."

Rico says nothing and leaves. Tai looks down, he shouldn't be too surprised that Rico helped him, for all his rudeness, Rico did always help injured teammates. Often, guys didn't usually show Rico appreciation, or were just rude in the process.

"I've never believed Rico was really a bad guy;" says Katherine; "He just seems angry all the time."

Tai's amazed at the girl's insight; "Yea you're right. I don't know why he is. Come to think of it, I've never asked;" he takes a deep breath; "but I still don't know if we can trust him."

Katherine shrugs her shoulders; "He was trying to catch Agumon and show him to everybody, but he also tried to protect me and help Agumon as well. He seemed concerned about something happening to me."

Tai doesn't know what to think, Rico's never come across as a trustworthy person. All he can do right now is pray. Agumon wakes up, screaming for food. His head is spinning and he clearly looks dizzy.

"Tai;" Agumon reaches out; "I feel so weak."

Katherine gets on the bed and hugs Agumon; "Thank you Agumon, you were great."

"I need FOOD. Fast." Agumon actually tries to start eating the covers. Tai stops him and sits him on his lap. "Food's on its way buddy." _Hopefully that is._

Katherine looks like she's lost in thought. Tai ask her what's wrong.

"That plant. It was bigger than the first one, and it came inside the camp grounds. I wonder if there's more of them."

Tai doesn't like the sound of that; "I hope not."

"Do you think it was a digimon?"

Tai shakes his head; "No, that thing was no digimon. As a matter of fact, we've never fought anything that wasn't a digimon, certainly never anything that eats people."

"I'm usually the one doing the eating;" says Agumon; "I don't want to be eaten."

"I think we need to tell Aunt Nina and the director about that plant;" says Katherine.

Tai agrees; "I think you're right."

Suddenly, the door swings open. It's Nina. The trio stares in silence. Nina looks sternly at Katherine, then at Agumon, then at Tai; "Mr. Kamiya, I believe you've got some explaining to do."


	8. Chapter 8

**A shout out to** **Angelfish369**. **Thank you very much for reviewing my story. I really appreciate it. Would love to hear more options.**

 **Chapter 8**

Nina stares at Tai and Agumon with her arms crossed, waiting for an explanation. Tai isn't able to get the words out of his mouth.

"Tai, Katherine, I saw you both in the lake, I saw the big monster defeat that plant and shrink into this one. Who is he? Is he a digimon?"

Tai lowers his eyes; "Yes ma'am. This is Agumon, he's a good digimon. He's my partner."

Nina mouth drops open and she tilts her head; "Partner, how is he your partner?"

"Long story. I've known him for 6 years, almost 7."

Nina's surprised; "Is that so? What's he doing here?"

"That's my fault;" answers Agumon; "I hide in Tai's duffle bag. He didn't know. He thought I was at home."

"He lives with you? Do you parents know?"

Tai nods; "Yes ma'am. My sister also has a digimon partner."

Nina gasp then looks at her niece; "Katherine, did you know about this?"

Katherine takes a deep breathe; "Only since yesterday."

"She found me in the luggage;" says Agumon; "I didn't do a very good job at pretending to be a stuff animal."

"No you didn't;" agrees Tai.

Nina turns her back to them as in deep thought, trying to process all this. She stays that way for a couple minutes then turns back around.

"So he was the 'little guy' that forced me to pay for a ridiculous amount of food, and the reason all the snacks disappeared;" she takes a real deep breath; "Did he really save you two? Is he really a friend?"

"Yes, ma'am;" Tai and Katherine both reply in unison, then looking at each other.

"And Rico;" adds Katherine.

Nina raises her eyes; "Rico? You're trusting Rico with something like this?"

The kids look at each again and shrug their shoulders.

"He's supposed to be bringing me food;" Agumon wines; "Where is he? He's taking too long!"

"Agumon he's only been gone ten minutes;" says Tai.

"TOO LONG!" Agumon pulls on Tai's shirt; "All that swimming exhausted me, then I digivolved and fought. I need something good to eat NOW!"

Nina rolls her eyes and shakes her head; "Is he always like this Tai?"

"Always."

"Aunt Nina;" says Agumon whimpering; "Do you have any food?"

"Ah, just Nina, and no…is that a poison ivy rash?"

"Ma'am;" asked Tai.

Nina comes closer and looks at Agumon. He's got white and red rashes breaking out all over him. He hadn't noticed, but now he's starting to itch.

"AGUMON!" says Tai; "What did you get into?"

"Oh my goodness;" adds Katherine; "He went through the poison ivy bushes when he smelled that pizza, the trap Rico set for him."

"Agumon!" Tai looks sternly at him.

Agumon has a sheepish look on his face and starts scratching; "I was hungry."

"Don't scratch;" says Nina. She looks closer at Agumon's skin; "Looks like you've got some 1st degree burns as well. Katherine, go get the stuff, and please take off those wet clothes."

"Yes ma'am;" Katherine leaves.

"I'd suggest you do the same Tai. And you should probably rub some calamine lotion on your arms after a shower; just in case."

"I will;" answers Tai, trying to keep his digimon from scratching; "What stuff? Oh that's right, you're allergic to poison ivy aren't you Coach?"

Nina nods; "Bad, so is Katherine. She discovered those poison ivy bushes last year, and we had to take her to hospital."

She helps Tai pin down Agumon's arms since he insist on scratching, which aggravates him.

"Please, please you guys, let me scratch. And where's Rico with that food?"

Tai tries rubbing the digimon's growling belly to calm him down, with little effect. "Hey Coach, ah, thank you for helping and for not getting angry."

Nina looks at Tai and sieges; "Well Tai, honestly, I'm very skeptical of digimon;" she looks at Agumon, who notices and gives her a kind look; "You don't have to be afraid of me Nina, I'm very friendly. Ravenous yea, but friendly."

Nina takes a deep breath and gives a little smile; "However, I know you saved Katherine Agumon; and perhaps the rest of us too. I should be much more worried about those plants. I really do trust Katherine's judgement. She's got a very good judge of character;" she looks back at Tai; "And Tai, you might be mischievous sometimes, but I trust you more than anyone else on the team. That's why I've had no problem with Katherine hanging out with you, very few people connect with her. It's good for her, and perhaps Agumon is too;" she hesitates, "but Rico?"

"That was my fault too, somewhat!" admits Agumon; "Where is he?"

Tai opens the door to check. He can hear some dogs barking like crazy, and it sounds like they're getting closer. He can also just make out Rico's frustrated voice.

"Sounds like a pack of yapping dogs are following Rico;" says Tai.

Nina giggles; "That must mean he's got food on him."

Agumon springs up; "About time!" Tai has to grab his partner tightly and struggles to keep him from dashing out the door. Rico gets closer, fighting off about half a dozen dogs. "Shoo! Get out of here! Leave me alone you mangy mutts!"

"They look pretty well groomed to me;" laughs Tai.

"Very funny Tai. I've already given these stupid mutts food!"

"That only makes it worse." Tai doesn't realize he's loosened his grip, and Agumon leaps onto one of the bags Rico's carrying and tries to unzip it, causing Rico to fall over.

"You ravenous reptile! You're worse than these mutts!"

"AGUMON!" Tai helps wrestle both the dogs and Agumon off the bags while Rico quickly regathers them.

"Tai, let me go! Let me eat!"

Tai drags his ravenous partner back inside with Rico behind them. Agumon dives head first into one of the bags before Rico can put it down. Then they have get the dogs out, using food.

Nina just watches in amusement as Rico slams the door shut; "Jeez those stupid dogs! I hate them!"

"They seemed to like you."

"Shut up Tai!" Rico takes out an ice pack; "and here."

"Thanks, and I mean it."

"Whatever."

Rico spots Nina, he's shocked to see her. They stare at each other firmly for what seems like forever. Finally Rico speaks; "What are you doing here Coach? Are you here to punishment me some more? I told you it was a reflex reaction and I didn't mean to hit her. "

While maintaining her firm look; Nina breathes; "No Rico. I just want to say, thank you for helping Katherine and everybody else. I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart."

"Yea yea, sure." Rico unconsciously starts scratching then catches himself; "Coach, do you have any of that calamine lotion?"

"Katherine's getting it."

"Where is she?"

Nina shakes her head at the boy's impatience. Katherine returns a few minutes later, along with the stuff as well as some dry clothes for the guys. She's also cradling a small dachshund, much to Rico's dismay.

"What are doing bringing that flea-bag in here?"

"They have no fleas;" she replies; "And his name's Oscar."

"How do you know?"

Katherine points to the collar, with the name "Oscar" on it. Rico snatches the lotion from her, however, Nina tells him that he needs to soak in the special Oatmeal soap, along with Agumon, who thought at first that the "Oatmeal" was to consume. Tai laughs and teases the digimon hoping he doesn't get sick from drinking soap. Nina and Katherine go to fill up the cabin's tube for Agumon and tell Rico to use the tube in the cabin next door. Rico pretends, as usual, that he hates having to take a bath, which in fact, he secretly loves them. What he hates is having to share showers with the other guys, which is why he rarely showers right after practice. He doesn't want the other guys to know that.

With Agumon settled in the tube and Tai off to shower, Katherine's now alone with her aunt.

"Aunt Nina, are you mad at me about all this?"

Nina shakes her head; "Not really, I only wished you had told me about Agumon yesterday when you found him."

"I'm sorry, but would I have been allowed to play with him if I had?"

Nina sieges; "Probably not." Nina then hears the radio she's been carrying go off. All the coaches and counselors are required for an emergency meeting immediately. Knowing what this must be about, Nina tells Katherine to stay indoors unless it's with Tai and Agumon, and to stay around the cabins. Katherine then goes to check on Agumon, who's about drifted off to sleep with a half-eaten candy bar sticky out from his mouth, lightly chewing. He looks very comfortable and relax. She gently shakes him awake, he shallows the rest of the candy bar and smiles at her.

"How are feeling Agumon?"

"Better," he answers; "Just a little itchy and still very hungry and tired. That was hard work. I'm so out of shape."

Katherine giggles; "I'm sure your diet doesn't help."

Agumon freaks; "What diet? I ain't on no diet. Please don't mention that word."

She just looks at him with a smile and gently pours water on his head. He splashes her, drenching her, then realizes what he's done; "Oh Kat, I'm sorry. You just dried off." Katherine says that's alright and dries herself off. She thanks Agumon again for saving them and he looks up at her; "You're so welcome. That was strange, the whole thing. It's sort of a blur to me. I've never fought anything like. I so glad Rico and Nina are on our side. She seems very nice."

Katherine nods; "She is, firm, but pretty cool. She listens to me;" her looks turns a little somber; "I'm not sure about Rico, I want to be able to trust him. He usually rats people out. I think it makes him feel better about himself."

Agumon doesn't understand that; "Why? That's makes no sense. I know he can be a jerk, but I think he's good underneath. I'll bet all he needs is a friend. I'll talk to him."

Katherine's not sure how that's going to work, she usually doesn't talk about her problems except to her aunt and brother. However, it could be worth a try.

Without warning, Oscar jumps into the tube, splashing them both. He processed to try and lick Agumon to death before Katherine manages to get him out and dries him off, only for him to reenter the tube and lick Agumon again.

Tai soon return. With the bath water now cold; they help a somewhat pruned Agumon out of the tube, try him off, and rub the calamine lotion all over him. He feels much better and isn't very itchy anymore. Worn out, he's immediately out cold as soon as he hits the sheets. Tai collapses next to him, as dose Katherine at the foot of the bed, neither having gotten much sleep the night before. Oscar also jumps on the bed and makes himself comfortable between the boys.

An hour later, there's knock at the door, Oscar barks. The three are jerked awake. Holding their breath, Katherine picks through the door hole. It's Rico. She lets him in. He's quite a slight, all shivered and wrinkled up like a prune, his hair still dripping wet, and he clearly didn't quite fully dry himself.

"Rico;" ask Tai; "How long were you in the tube?"

Rico looks annoyed; "I take long baths."

"Clearly;" laughs Tai.

Oscar happily licks Rico's legs. The teens about to kick him when Katherine and Agumon intervene.

"Hey, don't kick him;" urges Agumon; "He's just being friendly, be nice to him."

"Why? He's just an animal. Animals don't like me, and I don't like them."

"Why?" ask Katherine, cradling the dog.

"Why? There's no why. They're just animals."

 _Boy does he have it backwards,_ thinks Tai.

"Anyway," says Rico; "The counselors said that the coaches are still in the meeting with the senior staff, military are also here, they've got the whole camp on lock-down. There's talk of evacuations under military guard. There's also been two more confirmed sightings of those carnivorous plants near the camp, stocking the roads and attacking vehicles. There's also many debates about Agumon, or rather Greymon, or the fire-breathing dinosaur among all the other names they're calling him."

Tai gasps; "They know? I should have figured. Who all saw the fight? What do they know?"

"How should I know?" shrugs Rico.

"What do they think about me?" ask Agumon.

"Mostly about who to fear more, you or the plants."

"THE PLANTS!" yells Agumon; "The plants!"

"Yea the plants;" agrees Tai; "What are we going to do now? We need some kind of plan. Agumon barely beat that one."

"I wasn't at my strongest;" says Agumon; "but yea. That thing was tough. Two of them? I don't have the power to digivolve to WarGreymon anymore, at least for now that is. And I don't know if I've got energy for MetalGreymon, or how long I could hold it. I'm out of shape, and I'm SO HUNGRY!"

Agumon flops down on the floor and holds his forever growling stomach.

Rico shakes his head; "And I thought Tai was always hungry." Tai rolls his eyes, only for his own stomach to rumble as well.

"Anyway;" continues Rico; "I'm impatient. I want to find out what they're saying in that meeting."

"I want to know too Rico;" says Tai; "but how can we find out behind a closed door? They are behind a door are they are?"

Rico nods; "They're in the main conference room. It's locked and guarded. But we've got a secret weapon." Rico looks at Agumon, who's confused; "What are you looking at me for?"

"You're the only one small enough to fit through the vents."

"Wait a minute; Rico;" says Tai; "You're not using Agumon for any of your schemes."

"Come on Tai. We need that info if we want to make a plan, don't we?"

Tai shrugs; "Well…."

Rico kneels down; "Alright Agumon, if you do this, I'll give you 5 large pizza pies."

"Five?" goes Agumon; "Only 5 larges? You really don't know me do you?"

Rico shakes his head; "10 x-larges?"

"20 x-larges and 5 gallons of ice cream."

"Done."

"Great!" Agumon leaps up; "Let's go!"

Rico gets up, only to realize he's been doped; "Why that little…"

Tai and Katherine are both laughing. "He got you good, huh Rico?"

"Shut up!"

When they get outside, everybody seems to be panicked. Some campers have already packed their bags hoping to catch a bus home. Details seem to vary. Tai catches somebody say that they hope that neither the plant nor the digimon return. Another one says he hopes the digimon dose return and eats those plants. Some wonder which they'd rather be eaten by, the digimon or the plant. Tai just can't believe it and wishes he could just show everybody Agumon right here and now, but that would be his worst idea ever.

"Hey Rico;" says Agumon, sticking out his head inside Rico's backpack, "Thank you for trying to help me and Katherine. You were great."

Rico looks back at Agumon with a sneer look; "No I wasn't. You're the one who saved us."

Agumon gently wraps his arms around Rico's neck to hug him and nozzles his head on his shoulder; "At least you tried. That's the most important thing. And I'm so sorry for biting you yesterday. I didn't know what else to do."

"Forget it. And don't get so mushing about everything."

"Rico;" says Tai; "He's just being nice and friendly. Why don't you try it?"

"Been there done that;" replies Rico; "It may work amongst pals, but it doesn't work in the real world. Trust me, I know."

Tai's eye turn thoughtful; "I'm sorry you feel that way."

"I don't need your pity!"

Agumon leaps out of the backpack and gives Rico a big frontal hug; "Of course not. You need a big huge!"

"Get off me!"

"Agumon;" says Tai, "People will see you."

"I don't see any other people;" he keeps squeezing Rico; "You need friends. We'll be your friends if you let us."

"Get off me you ravenous reptile!"

Tai's about to help get Agumon off when Katherine approaches Rico and hugs him as well, softy. "What's this a conspiracy?"

"What's a…whatever you said?" ask Agumon as he nozzles on Rico's chest; "When was the last time you had a good hug?"

"I don't likes hugs and I don't need friends. Get off!"

Tai's shocked; "Why do you say that Rico? Everybody needs friends, even Matt admits that."

"Who's that? Ah never mind? Now, GET OFF!" He pushes Agumon off him. The digimon looks up at him with a sad face. Katherine kneels next to Agumon and looks at Rico with a look of sympathy. "If you don't need friends, why do you need our help?"

"That's right Rico;" says Tai; "Come on you guys. We're done here."

"Of course you are;" replies Rico; "That's what I mean. I actually thought I could rely on you guys, especially you Tai. Can't rely on anybody."

"What was that?"

"You can rely on us Rico;" Agumon jumps back into the backpack; "I'll prove it. Let's go."

Tai isn't sure this is such a good idea anymore; however, Rico really does seem surprised by Agumon's reaction. Perhaps he really is being sincere. They continue on and reach the admissions office building. They enter the back door. The hallway seems deserted. Rico removes the vent cover, looks at Agumon, and points. The digimon just looks at him.

"What are you waiting for? Go."

Agumon rubs his stomach; "What about those pizzas? I really need something to eat first!"

"Vent first, pizzas second!"

"FOOD first, vent second!"

"Hold it;" says Tai, kneeling toward his partner; "Agumon, I know your starving. I am too, but can we just get this over with. The faster you do it, the sooner we'll eat. Ok buddy?"

"How about this?" Katherine suddenly butts in, holding a partly filled bucket of fried chicken. Agumon snatches it and stars devouring.

"Where did you find that?" ask Tai.

"Over there on the end table;" she points; "How could you guys miss it?"

"Hey, give me some." Agumon looks at Tai, only his already finished all the meat; leaving only bones and a few crisp crumbs.

"Sorry Tai, you weren't quick enough."

"Why you!" Agumon avoids being grabbed and quickly enters the vent, leaving Tai cringing both fists; "He never learns."

It's Rico's turn to giggle.

Agumon crawls through the vent tunnels. It's dark and he keeps bumping his head. Ouch. _Why did I agree to this?_ There's a little light coming from another vent opening. He tries to look through it, but he only sees an empty room. Wrong one. Another vent he can't see through, he hears voices, but he can't make out what they're saying. He keeps moving, only for the air to come on. "Yissh! It's cold!" Agumon then slides down a downward tunnel. He tries pushing the next vent cover, trying to get out. It's stuck. He goes to another one. After a few pushes, it moves. Agumon crawls out only to see three sets of legs in the room. He quickly ducks back into the tunnel. He think hears a man's voice say the word "Plant". Interested, he slowly crawls back out, realizing the vent is underneath a table. He peaks from underneath to see what looks like a young woman wearing one of the camp T-shirts sitting at the table. The other two look like military men.

After listening a couple minutes, Agumon realizes that the soldiers are questioning the lady about the plants. It sounds like she was the assistant of whoever created them. The men remind her that several people have already died, and many more will die if she doesn't tell them how many plants there are. She refuses to answer any questions, just sitting there with her arms cross, never looking at the men.

"Young lady;" says one of the soldiers; "Don't you care that people are dying?"

She turns her chair further around and maintains a stoic face. "Miss Yoshida, you can tell us here, or you can tell us at the base. Which will it be?" She remains silent, still refusing to look at them. After a few more minutes, the military mean seem to give up and leave, but tell her they'll be back after talking with their captain. Once the door closes, Agumon jumps out in front of her. She can't get a scream out, she's shocked stiffed. Agumon looks at her firmly.

"Alright, tell me about those plants?"

"Wha…..what is this?" she finally says; "Some new military trick?"

"No trick;" says Agumon; "Answer me, how many more plants do we need to defeat?"

"What makes you think I'll tell you kid?"

"Pepper Breathe;" Agumon destroys the table. She looks at him with a terrified look, visibly shaking.

"Now, talk. How many of these things are there?"


	9. Chapter 9

At the Kamiya resistance, the ladies are starting dinner prep when the phone rings, Susumu answers it; "Hello Kamiya residence. What? You're kidding!" The ladies look at a startled Susumu; "What's happening? Is Tai safe? When's he coming home?...That's not a good enough answer! When's my son coming home?" Susumu speaks into the phone in an angry tone, something very rare for him, even when he disciplines his children. "I'd really appreciate if you'd…..hey, hello, hello?" Susumu slams the phone down; "Now that was rude."

"Honey, what's wrong?" asks Yuko; "Is Tai okay?"

"That was the camp administrative office;" answers Susumu; "They've got the whole camp on lock-down until further notice. The military's helping with evacuation procedures, but they didn't say why?"

"WHAT?" the ladies ask in unison, Kari and Gotamon looking at each other.

"Why?" asks Yuko; "why's the military there? Is it a digimon attack?"

"They didn't say;" answers Susumu; "they only said everything's under control and they'll get the kids home as soon as possible."

"I hope Agumon's ok;" says a concerned Gatomon.

"I wonder if it's connected to the recent disappearances;" adds Kari.

"What disappearances?" ask her father. Kari explains about the article they saw yesterday, she hasn't found any additional information. Susumu quickly gets out his lap top and searches for local news from that region. A photograph pops up, taken by a local who posted it on social media within the hour.

"What is that?" ask Yuko. Her husband clicks on the picture. Kari and Gatomon's eyes bug out. "Gatomon;" ask Kari; "Can you identify that?" Gatomon studies the picture and shakes her head; "No, I've never seen a digimon like that."

"Says this thing is believed to be responsible for the disappearances and possible deaths of at least 2 dozen people as well as local farm animals. Maybe feeding on local wildlife as well."

Yuko and Kari both choke and barely gasp. Gatomon snaps her head towards Susumu; "That's not a digimon! It can't be!"

Susumu gets into an open chatroom, comments are coming in like crazy, way too fast for Susumu to keep up with. However, he catches man-eating Venus fly trap and confirmed sighting of at least half a dozen of them, if not more, not only around the camp, but also heading towards the nearest town 10 miles from the camp. There's even some stocking the roadways and near the air force base. Then he catches a comment that says giant dinosaur fighting one of them."

"Greymon!" Kari straighten ups and looks at her partner; "Gatomon."

"Right."

"Kari…." Starts Yuko.

"Mom, we need to go. They need our help."

"It's not that;" Yuko grabs Kari's jacket; "it's getting a little chilly and breezy out there."

Kari rolls her eyes; "Oh Mom."

"Gatomon;" says Susumu; "Take care of Kari."

"Don't I always."

Kari gets on her jacket and takes out her digivice; "Ready Gatomon?"

"Let's go;" Gatomon glows; "Gatomon digivolve to….Angewoman."

Kari's parents wish them good luck and watch as they fly away. Yuko leans on her husband while he puts his arms arm around her. Despite knowing everyone will be ok, they still get concerned for their children, all 4 of them.

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Tai and Katherine pace up and down the hall, the former losing his patience. "Come on Agumon;" Tai bangs inside the open vent; "Finish whatever you're eating and get back here."

"How would you know that's what he's doing?"

"Cause I know him that's why;" Tai makes a fist; "and I'll bet he doesn't bring me anything."

Katherine giggles, but remains perplexed as to why both partners always seem to be obsessed with food, Augmon a lot more so. She looks at the glass door leading outside; "You know, Rico's been sitting on the steps for 15 minutes."

"He has?" Tai looks through the glass; he hadn't noticed that Rico was no longer inside with them; "What for Agumon, ok."

Katherine gives a thumbs up and Tai joins his teammate; "Hey Rico, what are doing out here?" Rico gives his team captain a somber look. Tai notices, to his surprise, Rico's got Oscar on his lap, scratching him around the ears and neck, Oscar enjoying every second of it. "I thought you said you hated dogs."

Rico looks at the dachshund; "He wouldn't leave me alone so I thought I'd humor him."

"Maybe he thinks you need company."

"Whatever."

Tai shakes his head and looks down, twitches his thumbs. "Hey Rico, I…um…, I know I've probably come off as a jerk towards you, especially with all those jokes and pranks when you first transferred to our school. I really didn't think I'd rube you the wrong way, and I'm sorry if I did. I should have considered your feelings more."

"It's a little late to apologize Tai;" replies Rico.

"What's you're deal anyway? You can tell me."

"You want to know my business, fine!" Rico blunts out; "I've got absent junkies for parents; mostly absent rich grandparents who are never home, and two perfect sisters who are too busy to bother with me anymore. I'm a hopeless student who's no good at anything except soccer and being rude, and everybody whom I've ever trusted has double-crossed me. Now are you happy!"

Tai's shocked. He doesn't know what to say; "I'm sorry."

Rico realizes what he just said and slams his fist down. "I'm so stupid. Now you've got even more to talk about behind my back."

"Talk about what?" Agumon leaps on Rico's back; "HEY! DON'T DO THAT! And what took you so long?"

After a brief gurr at the interruption, Oscar tries to lick Agumon's face.

"Agumon, are those brownie crumbs around your mouth?" ask Tai.

The digimon blushes sheepishly; "Oh you noticed."

"And of course you don't leave me any."

"There were only 12, and they were rather small."

"Geez guys, really?" says Rico as Katherine joins them; "We don't have time for this. Did you learn or do anything useful Agumon?"

"Of course." Agumon explains what happened.

"You did WHAT?!" Tai angrily grabs Agumon and pins him against the building.

"Sorry Tai;" answers Agumon deliberately; "I know I should have shared with you, but they were so good I couldn't help it."

"He means the lady you doofus!" yells Rico.

"He knows what I mean. What am I going to do with you Agumon? Who else are you going to reveal yourself too? The whole camp will know about us at this rate."

Agumon lowers his eyes; "I'm so sorry Tai, but how else was I supposed to get her to talk."

"He has a point;" says Rico; "He said he got some information. I hope it's useful."

Tai loosens his grip; "Agumon, we're going to do some real serious talking when all this is over."

"Someone's coming;" alerts Katherine. Tai grabs Agumon and they all run for a safe spot. Tai's ankle hurts again and he tumbles over it.

"OWE!" Tai stumbles up and tries putting weight on it.

"Tai;" says Rico taking an ace bandage out of his bag; "Why didn't you wrap that up earlier?"

"Didn't think of it." They find a safe spot under a tree surrounded by bushes. "Alright Agumon;" says Tai as Rico wraps his ankle; "Tell us what you found out."

Agumon sits; "Well, she said she and her father created them."

"Wait a minute;" snaps Rico; "You mean to tell us that somebody actually created these monsters?"

Tai's shocked, not wanting to believe the rumors before; "Humans really did do this? Why?"

"She said they didn't start out that way;" Agumon continues; "They were created to eat rodents and other pests, I don't know why, and for a long time they controlled them, but their taste evolved and they kept getting bigger every time they ate."

Rico isn't able to keep himself from throwing-up, Katherine and Tai barely contain themselves.

"Science gone badly;" says Katherine.

"How many are there?" asks Tai.

"She said about 15 got loose last week."

"Fifteen!"

"You mean there's 15 of these things loose and feasting on us?" exclaims Rico.

"Should be 13 now that two of them are destroyed;" says Katherine.

Agumon nods; "That's what she said, although she also said several more are still under control. She didn't say how many. She didn't tell me anymore after that, she started acting kinda crazy, twitching, walking around, and babbling stuff I couldn't make out, like she was flipped or something."

Tai just can't believe this; "Great. A looney lady and a whole army of these things. I don't know where to start. Did she say how to defeat them?"

Agumon shakes his head; "No, they've never tried to destroy any. They're their 'babies' she said, although I don't know why she calls them that. Plus, she begged me not to murder any or she and her father would kill themselves."

"WHAT!" yells Rico; "They must be a sociopaths."

Tai's pulling on his hair. He doesn't know how to process this. He just can't comprehend that two human scientists actually made these things, and seem to care more for the lives of their murderous creations then innocent people.

"13 more of these man-eaters on the loose, and maybe more. How are we going to stop them? Not by ourselves that's for sure. We need help. Izzy's usually the one who comes up with these plans."

"Agumon defeated that one with that giant fire-ball;" says Katherine; "I think the air force destroyed that other one with two missiles."

Tai snaps his figures; "That's a start. Agumon, can you digivolve to MetalGreymon."

Agumon shrugs his shoulders; "I'll certainly try, but you're right Tai, I can't take them out all out by myself."

Tai takes out his phone, but it still has no service, neither does Rico's. Katherine check hers, she has a text from Nina, asking where they are. She quickly replies.

"Katherine, your phone has service?" ask Tai.

"Only locally;" she replies; "Not all the way to Tokyo unfortunately."

Disappointed, the group makes their way to the pay phones, however, the lines for all 4 phones are like two miles long!

"Good grief!" say Rico, "Is every sissy calling home?"

"Let's try a phone in the office;" suggest Katherine.

"Will they let us?" ask Tai.

"Only for emergencies."

This is an emergency! They try to get into the office building, but the guards won't let them. They try to explain they need to use the phone, but the camp director comes out and tells them that all parents are being called and they'll get them home safely as soon as the roads are clear and secure. Both boys try to argue, even Katherine tries to argue, but the guards force them down the stairs and order them to either return to their cabins or go to the dining hall.

Feed up, Rico notices that his bag feels much lighter. Agumon's disappeared.

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Angewoman carries Kari as they leave the city behind. Kari sent out a distress call. Two of the other girls; Mimi and Sora, along with their partners, are on a plane to New York City to visit Mimi's American friends, but Yolei is on her way with Hawkman. T.K., Matt, Izzy, and Davis also answered the call. They don't expect to hear from Joe, Ken, or Cody as the former two are currently attending university seminars and Cody's on vacation with his family.

The girls notice another white glow next to them, it's T.K. and Angemon.

"Not letting you girls have all the fun!" shouts T.K. a little flirty.

"Funny;" replies Kari; "Are we heading the right direction?"

"Keep going due west, slight turn left just ahead;" answers T.K. looking at the directions; "The others are right behind us."

They hear what sounds like hollering coming up right next to them. It's Davis and Ex-Veemon. Davis looks green, with one hand on his stomach and the other on his mouth.

"Ex-Veemon, stop jerking."

"You said fast Davis, not steady."

"A little more steady please." Davis then throws up. Angewoman makes a face; "I sure hope that doesn't hit anybody."

"No wonder Matt and Gabumon didn't want to ride with you guys;" smirks T.K.

Davis recovers; "Funny. Hey Kari, long time no see."

"We just saw guys this afternoon;" says Angewoman.

"Way to ruin it;" replies Davis; "Hey guys, let's see who gets there first!"

"It's not a race;" says Angemon.

"A race against time. Let's go Ex-Veemon!"

Ex-Veemon pushes his speed, but the others turn slightly. Davis and his partner are several yards away before they realize the others are going a different direction. "Hey, where are guys going? It's this way!"

"Are you sure Davis?" ask Ex-Veemon.

"I'm sure. I was there last year. Keep going."

They only get a little ways when a buzzing sound crosses them. "You're going the wrong way Ex-Veemon;" Kabuterimon passes with Izzy, Matt, and Gabumon on his back.

"Turn around you guys;" Aquilamon passes with Yolei. Embarrassed, Davis and Ex-Veemon chase after the others.

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Agumon had to look in several offices before he finally found a free phone. Sneaking in while the associate grabs some tea, he closes the door (but doesn't think to lock it) and picks up the phone, only he realizes that he's never really bothered to memorize any of the Kamiya's numbers. He doesn't even remember Tai's, although he's seen the numbers several times, maybe he'll remember something.

The first attempt definitely wasn't it; "What's this a prank call?"

"Ah, yea, sorry." Agumon hangs up. That was embarrassing. He tries another number, one he's sure he's used before, but that turns out to be one of his favorite take-out places in the Kamiya's neighborhood. His stomach rumbles in response, of course he'd remember that number. He puts the phone down and tries to think of another number, maybe one of their friends, but his mind comes up blank.

Agumon's head hurts a little; "Man, thinking sure is hard work." He fails to notice the door open and the associate seeing him. She drops her tea and screams. Agumon ducks under the desk as two soldiers run in. They point their rifles at him, peaking at him underneath the desk. Agumon uses his claws to attack, unaware that the rifles are stunners.

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Tai and the others have been trying to figure out how to get in, guards actually pointing guns at them warning them to stay away. They hear the screams from outside, knowing right away what that means. Tai's at his wits end and lets his frustration out on a trash can, before returning to his senses and tries heading back to the building, only his hurt ankle won't let him get far, and the guards are now more than suspicious of the kids and warns them if they're spotting again, they personally be escorted to the dining hall, one of only two places that the campers are allowed to gather, the other place being the cabins. Katherine peaks from behind a bush and sees more adults running into the building, assuming the worse.

Nina finally finds the kids and they tell her what happened. Nina's horrified as she puts together the bits and pieces of information she got during and after the meeting, suggesting that the military plans to kill most of the plants and the giant digimon, but to also capture at least one plant alive, as well as the "little orange one". Word has gotten out that not only has one of the plants' creators been hiding out at the camp as a counselor (her father's still at large) but also about her claim of a small dinosaur threatening her (although she is acting 'out of sorts' and being sent to the base for psychiatric evaluation). Nina tries her luck at getting past the guards but they won't let her. Then she hears an excited voice on a radio.

"We've got him!"

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The digi-destined are getting close to the camp. Izzy's been trying to keep up with media reports, although his lap top signal is sketchy at times, even with his very advance program.

"Is that the town?" ask Kabuterimon. The town 10 miles from the camp is in view. Izzy learned from the media that plants have been stocking the town, and are now attacking shelters trying to get to people. A closer look confirms this. Plan is for part of the team to go town, a couple others to go to the base, and a couple more to the camp. Izzy warns everybody about tangling with the military as well.

Kari and Angewoman choose to go to the camp and look for their brothers. Gabumon digivolves to Garurumon as he and Matt follow on the ground.

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Tai and the others gather out of sight from the guards. Katherine and Rico keep watch, looking for anything that might be big enough to contain Agumon being brought outside. So far, they've seen nothing of that sort, so they can assume he's still inside.

Tai's beside himself. He just can't believe his partner's been captured.

"Why did Agumon go in there?" Tai wonders outload; "How could I let myself get so busy? If I hadn't ignored him, he wouldn't have come. Well, maybe he would have, I don't know."

"Tai, calm down;" says Nina; "Trust me, I know what you mean. I often wonder if I'm ignoring Katherine."

"Now I think I know how my Dad feels;" says Tai; "Growing up sucks sometimes."

Nina nods; "It definitely seems that way, but what are we going to do about it now?"

"I don't know. Didn't think I'd ever been saying this, but let's put our heads together."

Getting closer to Katherine and Rico, the 4 start to brainstorm. The guards know they're faces, and disguises probably won't work. Nina and Katherine come up with maybe needing to get help from Coach Shingo, the camp's assistant director, whom they know won't approve of the capturing and may be willing to set the digimon free. Nina believes she can convince him without having to mention the kids or any other details. Rico notices that Nina blushes a little when she mentions Shingo's name.

"Katherine;" he whispers; "Does your aunt like him?"

"I heard that Rico."

Tai has his droughts about the plan, but can't think of anything else. If anything Coach Shingo will only know that Agumon's an innocent creature who shouldn't be imprisoned.

Suddenly, a boom is heard and lights around the camp go out. The sun hasn't completely set, but its dark enough for the outside lights to have come on. They hear guns going off not too far away. They run out into the open, Tai limping behind due to his ankle, and can see the tops of not one, but two plants.

These are the biggest ones they've seen yet!


	10. Chapter 10

**FEEDBACK PLEASE!**

The plants are attacking the military guard right at the main entrance. Despite best efforts to hold everybody back, several curious adults and teens race towards the action. Electric and telephone poles are either damaged or knocked over entirely, causing power outage. The camp entrance sign is destroyed as well as some vehicles and fencing. Machine guns and two cannons are having virtually no effect on the plants, and it's all the soldiers can do to keep people from getting within the vines reach. Tai takes out his digivice and points it in different directions, including limping closer to the office building, hoping that Agumon's close enough, but no effect.

 _If only Agumon could pick up on this, then he could burst right out of his cage and defend us._

"TAI LOOK OUT!" Rico just barely pushes Tai out of the way of a falling flag pole, getting trapped himself. Tai and the Hinos try lifting it off him, barely able to lift it an inch as it's unusually heavy. They hear a huge crash and a burning machine gun lands just a few feet away, get sparks on the party and burning Katherine's arm. Then to their horror, one of the plants has broken through and heading towards them.

"Howling Blaster." A blue flame-like light distracts the plant. "No way;" goes Tai. Garurumon appears and attacks the plant again, knocking it down. Then the pole moves off of Rico and gets thrown to the side, thanks to Angewoman. Tai can't believe it, the other three are beside themselves, shocked and amused at seeing more digimon, Rico more horrified then amused. Katherine is drawn to Angewoman in particular.

"Tai!" Tai's surprised and relived to see Kari running towards them, while the digimon fight off the plant. Garurmon blocks the acid with his attack, while Angewoman strikes; "Celestial Arrow." The light arrow goes right through the plant, light rays beaming all through and killing it in a semi explosion.

Tai and Kari embrace; "Sis, I can't believe you're here. How did you find out?"

"News and internet;" she answers. Matt soon joins them; "Looks like you got yourselves into quite a pickle."

"I wish it was just that;" replies Tai; "What about the other plant?"

"We took care of that one too;" answers Garurmon as he shrinks back into Gabumon, "I think we managed to stay out of sight." Confusion follows as the new arrivals notice the rest of the party, Tai needing to clarify that they know the truth, to their shock.

Katherine admires the two digimon, slowly reaching out her hand, and speaks softly; "You must be Gatomon and Gabumon." The digimon drops their mouths, look at each other, then Gatomon slowly shakes the girl's hand, Gabumon just shyly blushes.

"How did you find out about us?" ask Gabumon.

"You can thank your friend Agumon for that;" replies Rico; "I sure hope you two don't eat as much as he does."

The digimon look at each other awkwardly and shake their heads. "Believe me, nobody does;" replies Gatomon.

Matt notices Rico; "Hey, you're the guy who stuffed gum into my harmonica!"

Rico remembers; "Oh yea, you're that mediocre rock star wanna-a-be. It was an improvement I'm sure."

Gabumon gets in front of Rico and looks sternly at him; "So it was you. Nobody insults Matt's playing."

"Stand down;" says Gatomon; "By the way, where is Agumon?"

Tai hesitates as he tells them. The digimon both shake their heads, somewhat embarrassed. While not at all surprised of their follow digimon's antics, they are shocked that Agumon managed to get himself captured, by humans' non-the-less. And how?

As they discuss their options and revise their previous plan, Gatomon having the best chance at sneaking inside as if she was a normal cat by removing he gloves, her ears twitch and she thinks she hears a strange sound.

"Did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?" ask Kari.

"That strange whistle."

Everyone gets silent and listens. The humans hear nothing, but Gabumon does; "Sounds like one of those blow instruments. What's that black one called again Matt?"

"You mean the clarinet?"

"That's the one."

"It sounds awful;" adds Gatomon.

They hear it again. The humans strive harder but still can't hear it. Katherine thinks she felt something brush against her leg. She looks, but nothing's there. She takes a closer look between the bushes, but still spots nothing. She looks back at the others as Gatomon informs them that the sound as suddenly stopped. For the next several seconds, nothing but silence.

"AUNT NINA!" Katherine's suddenly being dragged away. Nina gives chase, the others right behind her, and one of those plants emerges from the bushes, with Katherine raped tightly in its vines, including her mouth, leaving her unable to scream. Surprisingly, this plant is a runt compared to the previous ones, about Kari's size. Tai stumbles due to his injured ankle, Matt stumbling over him, then Kari. Gatomon and Gabumon get within feet of Katherine and are about to leap onto her, when two more plants suddenly emerge and whips them both out of the way, as well as holding the rest of the group back. Then each plant spits out of their months what looks like black billiard balls in front of the group. The balls explode, creating a thick gas cloud around everybody, causing bad coughs and stinging their throats and eyes. Gatomon, being the furthest away from the gas, gets up, and sees the plants taking Katherine into some trees, then disappears. Gatomon's hearing the awful clarinet again, and realizes that the plants were headed towards the music's direction, then silence once again.

Nina is nearly inconsolable. As the group discusses what to do next, they realized that despite knowing barely nothing about this plants, these three didn't just savagely attack them and gobble up Katherine right away, they took her away, as well as attacked with gas bombs, as to distract them. Plus, these plants were just the size of Kari, and Gatomon points out that it seemed to be responding to those awful clarinet sounds.

Is it possible that somebody's actually controlling these things, and if so, what do they want with Katherine?

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Katherine's eyes are finally uncovered and she's released. She struggles to regain her breath and composer after nearly being suffocated by those vines. As her head clears up, she realizes that she's in a cage, and not just any cage, a fortress like one. The walls in the room seem to be made of metal. Where is she? Why's she in here? Then she hears what's become a familiar hunger growl.

"AGUMON!" There's Agumon lying next to her. He's feet, hands, and mouth are all bound and gagged with duct tape. He's got some gauze taped to a spot on both his tail and arm, as if blood's been drawn, and a couple of Band-Aids on his other arm. She checks him over and realizes that he's sedated real heavy.

"Oh Agumon, what have they done to you?" Katherine shakes him; "Please, wake up." He responds with only a slight moan. She fiddles with his bonds when the metal door opens, and enters a young lady in a camp counselor's shirt and holding a clarinet. Behind her, to Katherine's horror, are two plants about human size, possibly the same ones that brought her. The lady plays an awful tune, and the two walking plants sit.

"Good job 27 and 29;" she says while patting their toothy heads; "Here is your reward?" She opens a large cooler and pulls out two dead goats. Katherine looks away as they devour them, feeling sick.

 _What a minute, weren't there 3 plants? Where's the 3rd?_

The lady approaches the cage. "Well now, seems we've got a child. Perfect hostage."

 _Hostage?_ "Who are you? What did you do to Agumon?"

The lady seems surprised; "Oh, so little Rapture 1 has a name does he. You actually know him? This is even more perfect then I planned;" an evil smirk appears on her face; "And I didn't do anything to him. In fact, I should be thanking him."

Katherine's mouth drops open; "What do you mean?"

"The distraction he caused allowed me to call on my babies here and escape;" she pats their heads. Katherine can't believe this and gives Miss Yoshida a very angry glare.

"You couldn't have been controlling those big ones."

Miss Yoshida is amused; "Clever one aren't you? Unfortunately, they went rouge and grew much bigger then intended. A few missed calculations, science is all about many failures before success. We've made lots of improvements and our newer ones are under control. Isn't that right 27 and 29?"

 _27 and 29? What happened to 28?_

She plays; 27 and 29 stand at attention, make circles, give her high-fives with their vines, and then relax. They nuzzle her affectionately and she kisses them both on the lips.

Katherine's beyond disgusted and chocks on her vomit. "Why are you doing this?" she coughs.

"That's my business." Just then, a soldier comes in and speaks with Miss Yoshida in English, not assuming that Katherine understands them. It seems as if he's in cahoots with this lady, and they mention about making negotiations about her father and the secrets of their Audrey plants. Katherine figures that these plants are based on and named after Audrey II from "Little Shops of Horrors", except they're man-made, not from outer space as in the play/movie. Plus they are much more animal like and obviously don't talk.

 _Why would anybody ever think creating plants like this is a good idea?_

Katherine notices that 27 and 29 are looking at the adults with their mouths drooling.

"You can't possibly believe you've got them under control!" Katherine shouts.

Miss Yoshida looks at her; "Shut your trap little girl." The soldier exits. Miss Yoshida blows into the clarinet again. _Where did she learn to play that thing? Or rather, not play it?_

"27 and 29, stand guard. Looks like 31 is playing hooky again."

 _31?_ Thinks Katherine. _Not 28 or 30?_

As Miss Yoshida heads towards the exit, she looks back at Katherine and gives an evil grin; "When all this is over, you two will make nice snacks for my girls."

The door slams shut and the plants look (with no visible eyes) at them through the bars. They seem to be sniffy them and licking their lips. They obviously want to eat them, but don't try to open the cage. They butt heads and hiss at each other. Katherine tries again to wake up Agumon, shaking even harder than before. His eyes remain shut and he hums, as if he's happy. She tries hard to undue the tough duct tape around his mouth, it's much harder than it looks. She ignores the plants staring again at them.

 _I wonder._ Moving her lips towards his ear, she shouts; "Tai's in trouble!"

Agumon immediately opens his eyes and springs up, also causing fire sparks to come out of the very end sides of his mouth, as well as his nose. Agumon then collapses the opposite direction, his flame hot enough to loosen the duct tape around his mouth. His eyes remain half open, lost in a daze and confusion.

"Tai;" Agumon says weakly; "Tai safe. Where Tai? Got Yakisoba?" His speech is slurred, and his eyes are dilated. Agumon looks at Katherine; "Tai look funny."

Katherine shakes the drugged digimon's head; "No Agumon, it's me, Kat."

Agumon giggles; "Tai voice squeaks. Tai got hamburger? Hungry belly."

Katherine slaps Agumon head on both sides; "Come on Agumon snap out of it. Tai's not here. Katherine is."

Agumon's eyes move around out of focus; "Ketchup? Oh yea, Ket. New friend, right? Tai looks just like Ket. Funny."

Katherine's determined to snap him out of it, then feels the cage shake. The plants seem to be fighting over food and bumped into the cage. A cooler is knocked over and disgusting, bloody animal parts are on floor. This time, Katherine isn't able to contain her vomit but manages to spit it all out through the bars. Agumon giggles as they hit the cage again, wanting more. The door opens and Miss Yoshida looks in, playing her clarinet. The plants snap at attention.

"What is going on here? What have I told you girls about fighting?" She walks up to the plants and slaps them both. They growl at her and she plays again.

"Awful sound;" says Agumon as the sound rings inside his ears; "Plant lady no play. Plants bad."

Katherine holds the digimon's mouth shut, hoping the Miss Yoshida doesn't notice that his mouth is free. However, she doesn't seem to notice and keeps playing the extremely tone deaf tune, the plants following her. "Come on you two;" 27 and 29 exit the room; "31, take over. And don't eat until I give you the command." She play another tune, 31 now coming in, looks at her creator, salutes with her vines, and comes over to the cage. At first, 31 doesn't look at the captives, but looks when she hears Agumon's stomach.

"Hungry hungry tummy;" says Agumon looking up at 31; "Big teeth. Hungrier then plant. Plant not eat Tai and Kat. Pepper Breath." Agumon shots his flame and his aim is way to the side, hitting the wall. 31 looks angry and sticks it vines into the cage. Katherine slaps some and Agumon shots again, setting one of 31's vines on fire, freaking out the plant.

"Agumon stop!" Katherine can't help but slap him a little harder; "You don't know what you're doing. Use your pepper breath on the tape, right here." Holding Agumon's bound wrist right in front of his mouth; Katherine again urges Agumon, not much fire comes out at all, not enough to melt the tape. 31 attacks the cage, pulling on the door, sliding the cage forward, and sticks another vine at Agumon, who bits off the vine and actually tries to eat, only to spit it out.

"Fertilizer dung not food." Katherine grabs the vine and manages to get it into 31's mouth, it too spiting it out. She attacks again, wrapping them both up this time and banging them against the cage. Agumon's attacks are way off, and are getting weaker with ever attempt. Not knowing what else to do, Katherine screams, hoping that Miss Yoshida will hear. While she doesn't, a solider does, enters and shoots at 31. The plant now turns her attention to the solider. Another solider comes in and shoots. With the plant distracted, Katherine checks the cage door, it's been jammed. She pushes on it and can only partially move it. "Agumon, I need your help!" Agumon doesn't seem to know what she's doing. Katherine has to push him from behind to the door, and even has to force the still dazed digimon to stand on his still bond feet. Having to steady the wobbly digimon, she urges Agumon to help her bang open the door. He does, using his head literately to bang against door, or bars depending on his dazed accuracy. This wasn't quite what Katherine had in mind, but she goes with it and has to keep redirecting him to hit the door. Finally, after 10 bangs, the door jams enough to open, Agumon falling straight to the floor, laughing.

"That was fun, can we do that again?"

Sometime during all this, Miss Yoshida returned and got 31 under control, as well as scold and threaten the soldiers for shooting at her baby. Katherine realizes that there's another, small door towards the back corner of the room, and she drags a still giggling Agumon towards the back. He's a lot heavier then he looks, and Katherine's heart-rate and breathing are about maxed out. Then there's a sudden jerk and she's knocked off her feet, slamming into the back wall. Miss Yoshida finally hears the giggling and notices that the cage is banged up and the door open.

"HEY, I didn't give you permission to leave!"

"Young lady;" screams one of the soldiers; "You can't take that digimon. He's government property."

Miss Yoshida starts blowing into her clarinet, but the solider demands that he'll handle it. They argue, but the other solider heads towards them. Katherine desperately tries to work the door. The solider shoots at her, he doesn't hit her, but hits the door. She keeps trying to work at it. The solider again fires at her, but then he yells. Somehow the still bound Agumon manages to roll himself over to the solider and bits him. He aims for the digimon, but Agumon moves again and the solider trips over him. Katherine grabs the rifle and bangs it on the lock hoping to jam it.

"GIRL, DON'T OPEN THAT DOOR! We're moving!" he tries to change his tone; "It's alright child. Just stop and settle down. Everything will be alright. You'll be exchanged soon, I promise."

Katherine turns around and hits the man on the head with his own rifle. To her amusement, the other two adults are still arguing, and 31 has shifted her focus to the spilled "food" on the floor. Unfortunately, Agumon is also trying to eat a bloody, raw goat limb. "Agumon don't eat that!" She grabs him and drags him away from the spill, however, Agumon drags the meat along in his mouth, refusing to let go. Even if he were within his right mind, the famished and weaken digimon would still try too ravenously consume this raw meat. Katherine really wishes she hadn't noticed what appears to be a human arm and foot amongst the spilled meat.

 _UGH! No wonder these things eat people._

The two adults have finally stopped arguing and notice the duo. Katherine again bangs the lock with the rifle. The other solider starts to fire, Miss Yoshida hits his arm.

"You can't kill the hostage yet. We have a deal remember. And stop using real guns!"

The insane adults argue again, this time getting 31's attention as they stepped on some of the meat. 27 and 29 also stick their heads in and notice the free food. Miss Yoshida panics as she tries to play her clarinet again, this time however, the angry 31 isn't interested in cooperating and snaps at the adults, while the other two help themselves to the rest of the meat. Katherine finally succeeds in breaking the lock and opens the door. To her horror, she realizes they are on a truck, and they are on the road. She grabs Agumon, who's still trying eating the goat meat, and drags him to the door. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Katherine then feels somebody tugging on her leg, the other solider is now awake and pulling on her. "Don't jump girl! Want to kill yourself?" He's got hold of Agumon too, who's crying between losing his meat and the man hurting Katherine, he tries to bit the man's arm, but his accuracy's off target. He's also unable to get more of a spark of his mouth. The man grasp each tightly, with a mad intent in his face, and ask the girl to give him his gun back.

 _I'm not giving up;_ Katherine thinks; _Wish I could do more. Wish I was stronger. Wish I could make Agumon digivolve._

Suddenly out of nowhere, a light shines from Katherine. The man is blinded by it and let's go. Katherine grabs Agumon as they fall out the door.

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Back at the camp, the main power is out and everything's on emergency lights. The digidestined are able to use their digi-vices as flashlights. Gatomon sneaks into the administrate building, removing her gloves to pass for a more normal cat, and nobody's the wiser. A few people even acted sweet and tried to pet her, Gatomon having to remember to restrain herself and not attack.

The rest of the group found nothing in the area they thought the plants went. Unfortunately, their search for Agumon and Katherine is cut short by soldiers who escorted the humans by force to the dining hall and locks them in an empty gathering room, the solider in charge not believing that anybody's been taken hostage, especially a small girl. Nina's separated from the teens for questioning. Gabumon was told to get away and hide. He follows the humans and sees guards at the door. Wondering if he should deal with soldiers himself or get Gatomon, he chooses the ladder. He opens a window to the office building, and rather than risk going in himself, he using a kind of hollow whistle-like sound that the digimon use amongst themselves, hoping she'll hear it. She dose and meets Gabumon at the window. Gatomon has searched almost the whole building twice, but no sign of Agumon nor Katherine, and no talk of what became of either them. They go to dining hall, quickly knock out the soldiers, and free their friends, who'd been expecting them.

At a lost as to what to do, Gatomon returns to the building hoping to learn something. Tai's been inconsolably worried about his partner the whole time, and he can't imagine how Coach Hino must feel. The group decides to keep searching, but need to lay low and unfortunately can't call out for their missing friends. Kari and Matt both make several attempts to contact the others by cell phone, but nothing's getting through.

Tai's been having trouble keeping up with everybody due to his injured ankle, and it's hurting more than ever. Alone at the moment with Rico, Rico orders Tai to sit down sternly while he checks it, Tai reluctantly doing so. As Rico does his best to treat and set the ankle, Tai's amazed at Rico's first aid skills, forgetting that Rico's actually the unofficial first aid provider for the team. As usual, Rico tries to shove it off.

"It's nothing."

"Quick acting like that Rico, it is something. You obviously care enough to stick with us and keep working on my ankle, and you don't have too. You've got a bigger heart then most of us realize."

Rico shrugs his shoulders; "Well, I'll admit it, I don't like seeing you hurt, and I care about rescuing Katherine. And I guess I might as well admit I'm kind of growing fond of the little glutton too." Rico feels warm and wet licks on his leg; "You again;" he says to Oscar; "You've been following us all night."

Tai giggles; "Looks like you've got a new pet Rico."

For once, Rico drops his facade and actually gives a little smile.

Suddenly, Oscar starts barking furiously, his tail wagging like crazy and repeatedly circling himself.

"What's wrong with him?" wonders Tai.

"If he doesn't quit he'll give us away."

Oscar's in full defense mode and seems to be focus on something behind the boys. Then a flash of light comes from behind them and a crash is heard next to them. Oscar shifts his barking in the direction, it's a plant. It had been right behind them!

"I thought you could sense danger from a mile away Tai!" The boys look up and see Davis and Ex-Veemon landing.

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Katherine slowly opens her eyes. What was that bright light? Rubbing her head as she gets up, she realizes that apart from some minor scratches and scrapes, she's not that hurt, although she's bleeding a little in a few spots, including from scrapes on both hands. Somehow, she landed on the grass and dirt rather than the tar road. She sees Agumon next to a tree, appearing no more worse for wear then she. She rushes next to him, and sees that he's throwing up.

She turns Agumon over, takes out a her small, slightly beat-up flashlight, and checks him over; "Agumon, answer me." The digimon slowly opens his eyes, they are red and look much less dilated.

"Kat;" Agumon replies in a weak voice; "Is that really you?" Katherine hugs Agumon joyfully; "Ouch."

Katherine loosens her grip; "Sorry."

The duct tape bounding his hands is torn, finally allowing her to remove it. The tape around his ankles are still mostly in tack.

"Where's Tai?"

Katherine gently rubs Agumon's cheek; "Tai's not here, just me."

Agumon's stomach roars furiously; "Hungry. So, so hungry. Weak."

"It's alright;" Katherine works on the remaining tape; "I wish I could help more."

Agumon briefly looks around, it's dark, a little light provided by the dimming flashlight, stars and half-moon. "Where are we? What happened? Did you come to rescue me?"

Katherine shakes her head; "No, they wanted to use me as a hostage."

"A hostage? Why?"

Katherine shrugs her shoulders; "No idea, but how did you get captured Agumon?"

Agumon's memory is fuzzy; "I don't really know. The last thing I remember is trying to use the phone, a lady seeing me and screaming, some soldiers coming in, and feeling some very bad stings, then blank. I had some very weird dream; you were in it, the plants, crazy plant lady playing this horrible music…."

"That wasn't a dream Agumon;" Katherine explains; "They had us on a truck and were taking us somewhere. You were so drugged and out of it. We escaped, but I have no idea where we are.

His feet finally free, Agumon lays his head down, feeling very weak and dizzy; "Please Kat, please, please tell me you've got food."

Kat weeps a little; "No Agumon, I'm sorry;" she looks first at the road, then the surrounding woods, there's no lights or street signs, and no visible edible plants she'd dare risks. Then her beat-up flashlight gives out. She takes a deep breath.

"I don't think we can stay here long. They may come looking for us. It's risky staying on the open road, but we can't go far into the woods either. We'll stay near the road but out of sight." She stands up; "I believe we were going this direction, so the camp must be that way, and we need to look for road signs."

Agumon tries to get up, very dizzy and wobbling, forced to lean against a tree; "Kat, please carry me."

Katherine tries, but can barely lift the digimon off the ground; plus she's exhausted herself and her muscles are throbbing. At Agumon's urging, she agrees to hide and rest before they journey onward. As they lay on the ground looking up at the stars, she asked him what he sees when he looks at the stars.

"Blurry;" he answers; "Fried eggs, sprinkles on ice cream, cinnamon and sugar cereal and toast;" Agumon's stomach growls louder as he speaks, causing him moan in pain.

"Try not to think of food;" says Katherine, her own stomach growling a little, not having eaten since breakfast. Agumon, realizing that wasn't him, looks at her, and they both laugh. Looking at the stars reminds Katherine of the light she saw earlier. What was it? If only she could fix her flashlight. Just them, a light appears next to her. Looking over, she sees this strange looking, glowing device. She picks it up and wonders what it is. Agumon sees it and sits up. It looks like a cross between Tai's original digi-vice and Kari's D-3.

"Kat;" says Agumon excitedly; "That looks like a digi-vice."

"What do you mean?"

"That means that, you're a digi-destined, like Tai!"

Katherine doesn't believe it; "Impossible. I can't be."

"Nothing's impossible, but where's your digimon?"

The digi-vice glows even brighter, then a beam of light comes Katherine herself, from her heart. They watch in awe as the two beams converge in front of them. As the light dims, appearing in its place is an egg.

 **I'm well aware that I make spelling and word errors. I try and carefully read over each chapter several times, including out loud to my husband, who also reads it, and we still don't catch all the errors. I definitely believe I tend to see what's "suppose" to be there rather then what is there. That's way professional writers have editors. LOL**


	11. Chapter 11

Gatomon, Gabumon, and their partners feel like they've been going in circles. Searching the area they were sure they heard the 'so-called music' diligently, they've come up with nothing. The digimon have been unable to pick up on Katherine's scent, although Gabumon thinks he identifies an awful, animal-dung like smell as that of the plants, but it leads no direct path, and the canine-like digimon is getting a sinus headache and watery eyes from that scent. They do find large, heavy tire-tracks leading towards a back road exit. They stop to discuss, and wonder if it's possible that Agumon might have already been transported to military base. But what about the missing girl, plus overhearing that the so-called plant lady has also escaped, and no current signs of any plants? Several clues, but how do they all fit together. Matt reminds them to keep their eyes piece for anything strange.

"Is a soldier who looks like she's sneaking around with a briefcase strange?" asks Gabumon. Getting his friends attention, Gabumon points at a covered military jeep, with the solider in question getting inside. At first, Matt isn't that interested, but the others think she's worth checking out as she looks around and then sneaks into the covered back. Matt reluctantly gives in. The two digimon sneak towards the jeep, their partners hiding and watching nearby. Gabumon suddenly stops, distracted by the delicious odor of food cooking.

Gatomon taps on his shoulder; "Gabumon; keep your mind on the mission."

"Oh yea, sorry. Haven't had supper."

"Me neither, come on." They crawl underneath the jeep, able to hear what going on inside. Then they hear heavy boot steps coming towards the jeep. While nervous, the remain quite. They hear the jeep door swing open.

"Corporal!"

The lady solider jumps, nearly dropping the tube she's holding, and quickly salutes; "Sargent."

"You were supposed to take those samples to the Captain's truck. You're lucky I'm willing to overlook this misdemeanor this time."

"I'm sorry sir, but look;" she holds up the tube, containing what looks like blood; "As you see, the digimon's blood looks solid and normal. Also he's warm-blooded, which we didn't except. However, watch;" she holds the tube next to her phone, "next to my digital phone here; it changes, like it's turning to data."

"You can do that back at the base;" replies the Sargent; "Raptor 1's already on his way to the lab. Get those to the Captain now! We've got new orders."

Corporal complies; "Ok, but I've been thinking. We've thought all this time that these digital monsters were just corrupted data, but I'm actually starting to think they may be physical too. Maybe they're actually alive, like us."

"Fascinating, but not now."

"Blue Blaster." Gabumon shoots his attack to merely distract them, allowing Gatomon to both snatch the tube from the corporal's hand and use her tail to grab the brief case. They both jump out of the jeep, the Sargent firing at them. They return to their partners and run away, hiding in the woods.

"What the heck happened Gabumon?" demands Matt. Gatomon shows them the briefcase, it's full of blood and other samples, assumingly Agumon's.

"We couldn't let them keep this."

"Good work you guys;" praises Kari.

"You guys couldn't do it without causing a commotion?" adds Matt sternly.

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"Davis;" says Tai; "You're here!"

"Of course I'm here." Davis rolls his eyes; "Why does everybody always say that?"

"What am I chopped-liver?" says Ex-Veemon.

Oscar barks at the duo, especially Ex-Veemon, then turns back towards the plant, which is getting up again.

"Looks like that things not quite dead yet!" yells Rico.

"Veemon, switch;" orders Davis.

"Again;" says Ex-Veemon exasperated; "Ok." Shirking down into Veemon, the dragon-like digimon armor-evolves into Flamedramon. "Fire Rocket;" it takes a few attempts before one of the rockets finally gets into the mouth, and Flamedramon hits it twice more to speed up the burning process. Then he shrinks again back into Veemon and catches his breath.

"Make-up your mind Davis, that's twice now I've switched digivolved. I'm going to run out of gas at this rate."

Rico picks up Oscar to calm him down; "Just what are supposed to be, a lizard?"

Veemon freaks and hides behind his partner; "Yikes, he sees me."

"Hey pal, what's the big idea…" Davis starts; "Hey wait, you're Rico Hosoda. Your soccer skills rival Tai's."

"Can't argue with that;" agrees Tai.

Rico's not flattered; "And you are?"

"What do you mean who am I?"

"Davis is Shinagawa Middle School's best soccer player!"

"Never heard of you."

"What? Hey, that was rude."

"Get used to it;" says Tai. He then turns to Rico and whispers; "They're exaggerating. Kari's even better than this guy."

"I hear that!" yells Davis; "Where's the others, we need help."

Tai's surprised; "You need help? We need help! Plants everywhere, Agumon and Katherine have been captured!"

"Agumon captured?" asked a shocked Veemon; "How, when, why, who? Impossible! He's too tough."

"Agumon captured?" repeats Davis; "Great! Now we've got 3 missing guys to find, Kaburterimon and Izzy are missing too. Whose Kathy?"

It's Tai's turn to be shocked; "What do you mean Izzy and Kaburterimon?"

"They were shot down;" Veemon burst out; "All we found was Izzy's laptop."

Davis shows them the laptop. Tai can't believe what he's hearing; "Shot down? How?"

"By those craze military guys' canons!" Davis cringes his fists; "While Ex-Veemon was protecting citizens. Didn't they see that? Don't they care?"

"Don't judge them harshly Davis;" says Tai; "They act out of fear."

"It's all my fault;" says Veemon; "I should have been paying more attention. Kaburterimon was protecting me."

"Calm down guys;" says Tai; "The others are this way. Come on."

Tai's practically moving with a limp, and Davis notices; "Well well, I knew you'd get hurt sooner or later, Mr. Soccer Awesome."

"It's not that bad;" replies Tai; "How about all those injuries you've had, Mr. Klutz."

"Hey, I resemble that."

"Can it and come on!" shouts Rico, allowing Tai to lean on him for support. As they move on, Veemon gets next to Rico.

"Hey I believe we haven't meet yet;" he grabs Rico's hand and shakes it vigorously; "Please to meet ya Rico, I'm Veemon, how ya doing, let's be friends."

Rico jerks his hand away; "Stop that! A simple I'm Veemon will do. And do all your names end in mon?"

Veemon rolls his eyes; "Jeez what a brute. You could say it a little nicer."

"We're moving too slow;" says Davis holding up his digi-vice; "Come on Veemon, let's speed this up."

Veemon's agitated; "If I'm going to keep re-digivolving, at least give me some of the kaki-pi to keep my energy up."

"Coming right up;" Davis pulls out a bag of kaki-pi (small crescent-shaped fragments of senbei (soy-flavored rice crisps) with peanuts) from his pocket and tosses it to his partner.

"May I have some?" ask Tai.

"Why?" ask Davis jokily, "You and Agumon never share."

"Sure;" replies Veemon allowing Tai to get a handful.

"Really you guys!" shouts Rico; "We don't have time for a snack."

Veemon offers some to Rico; "Digimon always have time for a snack. Here."

Rico holds up his hand; "No thank you. Too spicy. Hey! Don't give any to that dog! It'll upset his stomach."

Tai smiles with his mouth full; "You really do care about him don't you?"

"Shut up."

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Katherine moves along, the egg tucked underneath her left arm, Agumon leaning on her right, barely able to keep his eyes open due to his hunger headache. Katherine looks at the egg, which is cream colored with waves on it. It hasn't really hit her yet that inside is 'her' digimon. What will she be like, what will she look like? Since meeting Agumon yesterday, she's been daydreaming about a digimon, seeing a cream-colored seahorse with blue eyes, pestle pink dragon/angelic wings, and a crest of a Parasaurolophus (one of her favorite dinosaurs), plus a pink heart on her right check. However, she probably won't look like that at first, Agumon informing that the new digimon will be in her fresh baby form when she hatches, then in-training, then rookie, which would be her default form (usually).

As they try to climb a small hill, Agumon collapses and slides back down, bringing Katherine down with him. The digi-egg rolls down hill and gets close to the edge of a cliff, Agumon recovers enough to grab it, barely missing the edge of the cliff himself. Katherine drags them both back to safety and breathes a siege of relief.

"Thank you Agumon."

A sad look appears on his face; "I sorry Kat. It's my fault. I'm running on empty. I'll try harder to keep up."

Katherine rubs his cheek and kisses him; "Don't feel bad."

"But I do;" replies Agumon; "It's all my fault that you're even in this mess."

"If I wasn't in this mess, would this egg be here now?"

Agumon has no idea, but maybe she did have a point. When the egg appeared; Agumon had been so mesmerized that he almost forgot about food. He'd never seen or heard of a digi-egg forming that way.

As Agumon struggles to sit up, Katherine tells him to rest again while she checks the road. They've yet to see any signs, so there must be one soon. They can only hope that their captures aren't nearby looking for them. Seeing the egg through his blurry vision, Agumon must admit it looks rather tasty. He looks away and practicly buries his face in the dirt, telling himself over and over not to look at it.

Using her new digivice for light, Katherine goes a little ways up the road, until she finally spots a signs. Running towards it, the town is 1 miles away. She rushes back towards Agumon's location. If they can only make it to the edge of town, maybe finding refugee and a phone or something before hitting the town limits. She then hears something, sounding like a strange voice yelling for help.

She makes her way to the river and is surprised at her discovery. Tangled up in the vines is a strange, dark pink bug like creator; "Izzy, help!"

"Hang on!" Katherine gets to the river bank. The bug's severely tangled and seems stuck between the rocks. He notice's the girl and panics. "You're not Izzy!"

Katherine carefully walks through the sticky mud, trying to remember the survival skills she learned while visiting her brother last summer. She looks for a really strong stick. "It's alright digimon, I'm a friend of Agumon."

Tentomon's shocked; "How do you know Agumon?"

"I met him yesterday," she checks the vines, they're very tight. Also Tentomon's foot is embedded between two rocks. "If you could loosen these vines just a little, I can use my Super Shocker to free myself."

Katherine and Tentomon sink deeper in the mud as she work the vines with the stick and a rock. After several minutes, the right one loosens enough and Tentomon does the rest. Its then his turn to pull Katherine out of the mud, just barely having enough strength to left her to safety.

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Agumon chews on sticks and grass attempting to appease his hunger and detour himself from the egg, to no avail. Despite thinking that it looks tasty, Agumon's also curious about the digimon inside. Would it even hatch tonight? Digi-eggs could hatch anywhere from an hour after creation (or reincarnation) to several weeks. He crawls next to it, taps on it, and starts talking to it, since he'd never talk to his food.

"Hello in there. I'm Agumon, Tai's partner. You know you're a partner right? That's very unique amongst digimon. Are you a newly created digimon? What kind of digimon are you? What colors will you be? What kind of foods do you like? I'll introduce you to all the great foods and people out here. This is the human world you're going to see. There's another world, the digi-world. I miss it sometimes but I feel quite at home in this one, especially since I get to be with Tai all the time. I'll take you there someday, but we can't get there now. Can't wait to meet you. Are you a girl? We need more girl digimon."

His stomach growls, more painful than ever. The famished digmon hugs his belly and rolls on the ground, it so painful tears are even forming in his eyes, and his head aches as well. The next pang is just as painful, yet Agumon thinks he hears another growl in sync with his own.

"Man, sounds like my belly is double growling."

He hears the growl again, only this time realizing it's not him. He listens again, that growl, which sounds more like a grunt, seems to be coming from the bushes.

"Hello, is somebody there?"

Suddenly, a boar emerges and heads straight for the egg, attempting to bite into it. Agumon's horrified; "Hey, that egg's not food!" Trying to conger his Pepper Breath, the digimon only manages a few sparks, hitting the boar and making him angry. The boar charges Agumon and knocks him out of the way, then turns his attention back towards the egg, attempting to roll it away. Agumon recovers and charges at the boar, biting it's leg. Now really furious, the wild boar stands off against the digimon, circling around each other. Again the boar charges, sending Agumon rolling towards the river edge. Somehow, the egg also rolls down the slight hill. As the enraged boar makes one last charge, Agumon quickly grabs the egg before being knocked into the river.

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Tentomon and Katherine rinse off along the river bank. Tentomon quickly explains that he landed in the muddy bank when he was shot down and got tangled in the vines. Izzy landed somewhere else, and Tentomon's impatient to find him. Katherine offers to help, but informs the insect digimon they must retrieve Agumon and the egg. Tentomon quickly figured the girl out as a digi-destined by her digi-vice, although he's never seen that model. He's even more blow-away when she said that the digi-egg formed from a light in her heart; nothing Tentomon's ever heard of. Izzy will surely be interested in that.

"Why is Augmon all the way out here, and not at the camp with Tai?"

"Long story;" replies Katherine.

They suddenly hear a cry for help, it's Agumon, floating down the river, clinging to the egg. Tentomon quickly flies out.

"Agumon, grab hold."

Agumon can't believe he's actually seeing his fellow digimon, but grabs Tentomon's hands and holds on tightly to the egg. They make it to safety, Katherine embraces the dino and the egg in relief.

"Agumon;" says Tentomon catching his breath; "You really need to cut back on the junk food."

Agumon hugs him; "I can't believe you're here. Where's Izzy?"

"He fell into the woods, back that way;" replies Tentomon; "He can't be far, but I don't hear him. He may be hurt. Wait, Katherine your digi-vice. If Izzy's nearby, your digi-vice will pick up on his, if it works the same way."

Katherine takes out her digi-vice and points it in the direction Tentomon pointed out, there's nothing.

"Let's get closer;" suggest Agumon, but he doesn't get far before collapsing again, breathing heavily. "Tentomon, I need a left please pal."

Tentomon's eyes would be rolling if they could move; "Really Agumon, how did you manage to get so weak, and can't your stomach rumble a little quieter."

"Can't help it, and your one to talk."

"Don't remind me."

"Guys, shooooo;" says Katherine; "Listen." Its voices. They dash behind some rocks and bushes and peak. They can't believe what they're seeing, two young men in camp shirts, pulling two large wagons full of small Audrey plants inside pots.

"Is this the last of them, I hope;" says the taller and skinnier of the two.

"It is;" replies the other; "178 specimen and seedlings. You got the notes and keys?"

The taller young stops in his tracks; "Oh, I ah…."

"You didn't get the keys? Or the notes! You dimwit."

"But why would she need them? She knows all those notes by heart. Besides, why does she insists on letting #'s 1-12 loose anyway? They're so humongous and deadly! Why didn't they destroy them?"

"Because;" answers the shorter; "They view it as murder. She wants revenge for the ones already killed, plus she wants to see what they can do against those monsters and the military."

"Even her old man isn't that crazy!"

"You know what will happen if we don't corporate! Can't say I don't agree with you. At least she isn't letting It out. Even she wouldn't do that."

"Are you sure about…..OUCH!" One of the mini-planets grabs his hand; "Hey, let go 68!"

"That's 64."

"How can you tell? Give me back my figures you little devil!" He hits 64 on the head and she lets go, his fingers bleeding. "OUCH! THIS HURTS!" he takes out a handkerchief and wraps his fingers; "I've already lost two fingers to this plants. I sure had a time trying to explain it off to the doctor. He didn't buy the opossum story."

"Just wash and set those fingers;" says his unsympathetic partner; "We've got to rondevu. She's trying to work out a deal with this secret underground unit to release her old man as we speak."

"How did ever get involved with this mess?"

"I'll finish loading these girls, you go back and fetch those things. And in case you forgot, the notes should still be in the filing cabinet inside the trailer, bottom file. The keys are in a secret compartment inside the freezer. We'll come back later and burn everything else."

The tall one gets frightened; "But but, the python's inside the trailer."

"So. It's docile."

"Not recently! Yoshida's been injecting hormones and who knows what else into her. She's become very vicious. Plus, she hasn't eaten in weeks."

"Then she should be secured. Stop being such a big baby. NOW GO!"

They part ways, the tall one heading back the other way reluctantly. Agumon started pulling on Katherine's arm to go to place in hopes of finding food, she herself would like to recover those notes and keys before the young man does. Tentomon, however, wants to continue looking for Izzy, which she agrees. Tentomon's reluctant to carry his the weakened Agumon, mostly because he's running low on flumes himself, but agrees.

Several minutes pass when Katherine's divi-vice picks up a signal. It must be Izzy, and Tentomon picks up his pace considerably. They enter a clearing, with a trailer and what looks like a damaged barn. Agumon impatiently urges Tentomon to drop him off at the trailer as there must be food in there, and according to the signal, Izzy's nearby.

"Just try and remember to leave me a little;" says Tentomon

"No promises;" replies Agumon.

Suddenly the door to the trailer flies open, the man runs out in a panic, holding what must be the keys. "I don't care about the notes, I'm not coming back!"

Coming out of the door appears to be about a 23 or 24ft, maybe even 25ft, "hairy" Burmese python on steroids. It slithers into the overgrown. This isn't good. While wondering what to do next, the digi-vice signal beeps again. They cautiously moving into the clearing and following the signal, it's coming behind the barn. Tentomon drops Agumon and flies towards a large hole, and inside that hole is none other then Izzy.

"IZZY!" Tentomon flies into his partner's arms.

"Tentomon, I knew you'd find me."

"I've brought help."

"Hey Izzy, how's it going?" ask Agumon looking into the hole."

"Agumon! Thank goodness. Tell Tai to get a some rope."

"Kat's already on it."

Did Izzy hear that right; "Who?"

"AGUMON!" yells Katherine; "LOOK OUT!"

The python's heading straight for him. Grabbing a bushy stick, Katherine tries to detour the snake away from the digimon. Agumon grabs the tail, but has no strength left to hold on and is flipped away. The snake starts to strangle the girl. Tentomon attacks, but his Super Shocker is weak and only stings the snake.

Just then, the egg actually leaps from Katherine's arms and lands in front of the snake. It glows very, very brightly, blinding the python and causing her body temperature to rise to much. The snake let's Katherine go and retreats.


	12. Chapter 12

At the military base, the Colonel is watching from the mission control room. Four of those giant plants surround the small base compound. They've already pulled two of their small Nucs, and unfortunately, the plants are still going with no signs of slowly down. Despite having Dr. Yutaka Yoshida in custody, they've been unable to get anything out of him. Being a former solider himself as well as growing up a military brat, Dr. Yoshida is very familiar with military integration techniques and knows how to stand-up to them, as well as reverse-psychology. Not even truth serum or nor their worst threats could crack him. Besides that, there is evidence of betrayal as well as a secret unit within his own base that's been cooperating with the Yoshidas, supplying them with illegal substances and top secret poleobotany (study of fossil plants) research. The traitors have yet to be identified.

All of a sudden, two mysterious flying creatures, assumedly digimon, show up and start battling the plants. The soldiers start firing at them as well, without orders from high command, making the battle much more complicated. As the Colonel watches, he has to make a decision fast, as the three-way battle is allowing the plants closer and closer to the base facilities. However, he notices that these digimon seem to only be content on battling the plants, putting themselves in harm's way, and protecting the soldiers. The Colonel himself has been uncertain about digimon, especially after personally witnessing that catastrophic battle 8 months earlier. He doesn't know whose side digimon really are on as they seem to fight both ways. He remembers reports of Tokyo children actually allying themselves with digimon, although those reports were later rebutted as false. He also recalls kids supposedly being present during battles seemly cheering the digimon along.

Colonel notices the white, angelic looking digimon putting itself between one plant and some families' right in front of the base housing. It seems to be saying something to the people, then uses some light attacks on the plant while barely avoiding gun fire, and the people retreat. Despite his most of his staff being skeptical, the Colonel has made his decision.

Outside, the fighting is a bit chaotic as Angemon and Aquilamon are fighting a 3 way battle. Angemon has managed to kill one plant, but between them, the guns, and rescuing people, both digimon are stretched a little thin. Angemon, T.K., and Yolei all wonder how they can let the military know they are on their side and if they could even get them to cooperate, Aquilamon is much more skeptical. As both digimon block the plants and their partners wonder if they should digivolve to ultimate/perfect, some military jeeps come out, waving white flags.

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From inside the hole, Izzy hears the commotion and sees the sudden flash of light; "What's going on up there?"

"A python problem and a new digi-egg;" answers Tentomon flying down.

"Huh?" Izzy, who's usually quick on the uptake, doesn't know what to make of that answer. Tentomon quickly explains in more detail, which has Izzy both curious and baffled.

"A new digi-destined named Katherine, her own digi-egg created from herself, and an over-muscled python you say? The snake-kind right?"

"Right;" answers Tentomon, "not the language programming."

A rope is thrown down, Izzy checks it for security, then climbs up; "So Agumon's separated from Tai because he got captured with this girl, who's now a digi-destined with a new type of digi-vice and digi-egg forming from herself? That's interesting. I've got a ton of questions to ask her."

"Maybe we should concrete on getting out of here first;" says Tentomon.

Izzy reaches the top; "And we need to find my laptop. I'm lost without it."

"I told you to put it away while we were being attacked."

Izzy climbs out of the hole, he sees the girl in question standing next to a passed out Agumon, clinching the egg and holding a large stick, completely on guard. The python headed towards the river to cool off, and it's only a matter of time before she comes back.

"Hello there;" greets Izzy, causing her to jump; "You must be Katherine. I'm Izzy Izumi. Welcome to the digi-destined. Is that the egg Tentomon told me about?"

Katherine just stands there frozen, staring at Izzy, reverting to her usual shy state and immediately starts fidgeting.

"May I see your egg and digi-vice? I've heard of digi-vices forming from digital data light, but I've never heard of a digi-egg just forming from light, much less a light shining from a person. That's very prodigious."

Katherine can't bring herself to speak, this guy seems to have a lot of questions right out of the bag just like she usually does, except she usually keeps them to herself because people don't usually appreciate her asking annoying questions unless they invite her to do so.

Hearing Agumon's stomach snaps her out of her shyness; "Please, help Agumon."

"Oh, yes of course;" Izzy picks him up; "Geez, what happened to Agumon? He's awfully banged up, and his stomach sounds like he hasn't eaten in like an hour or two, maybe longer."

"He needs food and medical care;" says Katherine; "and we need to get out of here. That python's hungry and bound to return soon."

"What about you?" asks Tentomon; "You're pretty banged up yourself, and I can tell you're exhausted."

"What about that trailer over there?" ask Izzy, "I was headed towards it when I fell into that trap. Should've seen that one coming."

Katherine remembers the notes she wants to claim, but the python also came out of the trailer.

Tentomon's thinking the same thing; "I hope there aren't any more terrify creatures in there."

"Then I guess you'll have to make sure it's safe to go inside;" suggest Izzy.

"Me?" replies Tentomon; "That's more of Agumon's thing." Agumon, however, is still passed out, and Katherine starts to volunteer; "Never mind, I'll go."

Izzy snickers under his breath. Despite his usual serious, business-like exterior, he and his partner do like to have fun with each other. They carefully, but quickly walk the path to the trailer. The door's wide open, Tentomon shakes a little but forces his way inside. While he's in there, Agumon comes too and begs Izzy for food, who gets a sheepish look on his face; "I've got some Oolong tea."

Katherine makes a face and Agumon nearly faints; "Of course you do."

"Funny how he sometimes forgets the snacks;" say Tentomon returning, "yet he never forgets tea nor his laptop, which he's never once lost until today."

"Izzy lost his laptop?" asks Agumon; "That's new."

Izzy just rolls his eyes; "Well Tentomon?"

"Well, there's no, at least I don't think anything's alive, but a, it's still awfully creepy in there. You sure you guys want to go in?"

"Is there food?" ask Agumon, hopefully.

Katherine nods; "I believe there's notes on the plants in there."

"That's perfect!" exclaims Izzy; "We can finally get some decent information on them. I can't believe I haven't found anything about them on the computer other than some brief news articles. They weren't much help at all. I still can't believe these aren't digimon we're fighting, we figured that out when I couldn't find any data on them. This is a whole new experience for us. Dr. Yutaka Yoshida is a poleobotist who used to be a respected scientist for Tokyo university, and his daughter was following in his footsteps, but both of them were expelled from the University for 'lethal experiments' and 'physiologic issues'.

"Like creating giant, mobile plants that eat humans, and perhaps digimon too?" adds Tentomon.

Katherine thinks that's just the beginning.

Entering the trailer is literally like entering the horror movie genre garbage dump. There are creepy items everywhere, mostly dolls and posters, including Pennywise and other demon-looking clowns, Halloween, Child's Play, Friday the Thirteenth, Walking Dead, Japanese horror, Jubba the Hut, even several things of Audrey II from "Little Shop of Horror". In addition, the place looks like a dumpster exploded. Izzy is nearly as freaked out as when he first woke-up in the digital world and meet Motymon (Tentomon).

"Who are these people?"

Tentomon covers his nose; "These people are eccentric even for humans."

Agumon gasps for breath; "Dose that word even describe them?"

Katherine starts chock coughing and tries really hard not to breathe in too much of this contained air while also trying to pretend it's a bunch of cute stuffed animals looking at her. She starts checking all windows and doors and stuff to make sure the python can't reenter.

Agumon pushes past the smell to look for food. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of left-overs. He precedes to eat any crumbs and days old bit-size left-overs he finds, degusting Tentomon out.

"Who is Steven King?" ask Tentomon looking at row of books on a shelf.

"Nobody you'd want to read;" answers Izzy.

"I wouldn't read him if I was allowed too;" adds Katherine; "I think they said the notes are in the bottom draw of the filing cabinet."

"Which one?" ask Izzy. There's about a dozen filing cabinets, at least that they can see. She and Izzy will have to search them all. Tentomon notices that Agumon's about to open the refrigerator.

"Ah, I wouldn't open that if I were you, there's no food in there."

Agumon ignores him and opens the fridge. There's an awful smell and he's starting to feel nauseous. "What is that? Horrible smell!" Before he can slam the door, Agumon nearly passes out (again) from the smell. Katherine and Izzy quickly slams the door shut while Tentomon holds his breath, both getting a glimpse of the fridge's content before closing it. What it looked like was a decomposing body of a giant tarantula, about the size of a medium dog.

"Let's find those notes and get out of here;" says Katherine.

"Find a box and we'll dump all the contents in it;" adds Izzy, but then he rules out the first set of fills as they are just horror comics. The second cabinet looks like past due bills and other mail, which he by passes as well. When Katherine open her first, a Chucky doll jumps out with a knive threating her, causing her to scream and to almost have a heart attack. Fortunately, it's a fake. She speeds up her search.

Despite the smell, Agumon's far too famished to not check the freezer, but it's only contents is mold and jars of what looks like frozen animal(?) parts, although Agumon would have actually tried to eat them if not for Tentomon shoving him out of the way. They check the covers, which contain nothing but empty boxes and roaches, that Tentomon attacks, much to his fellow digimon's dismay. They keep looking, removing a dirty sheet from what look like a big, filthy, glass cage. "Ah, guys, come look at this;" calls Tentomon. Old, giant, shredded snake skins confirmed this was the python's home, but it's the label on the cage that's the most interesting.

"Fluffy?" ask Tentomon.

"What's a Fluffy?" ask Agumon; "I hope it's tasty."

"I think that may be the snake's name;" says Izzy.

"Fluffy?" again ask a bewilder Tentomon; "Why would anybody name a snake Fluffy?"

"You're guess is as good as mine."

"I wonder if Fluffy taste good;" says Agumon.

"Seriously Agumon;" replies Tentomon; "She'll find you tasty first."

"Not as Agumon, as Greymon."

Tentomon buries his face; "Agumon you're not serious."

"Guys, look!" calls Katherine pointing at the window. The python is looking in on them. She and Izzy quickly check around again to make sure everything's still tightly shut, then the snake turns its head around and charges the opposite direction. They hear yelling and dash for the windows, outside are the same two young men from before, the shorter one holding what appears to be tranquilizer gun. They slightly crack open the windows to hear, the python charging for the taller, more nervous man.

"Why do I always have the hard and dangerous work?" he shouts.

"Because I'm your superior that's way;" says his un-sympathetic partner.

"I've been hear longer than you whoa;" shaking nervously, he wiggles a dead, still half frozen goat at the snake; "Now Fluffy, be a good girl, look what I've got for you."

"Act more alive stupid?"

Tall guy throws the goat at Fluffy; "Shot her already!"

"Ok hold your horses;" shorter guy moves slowly; "To bad those plants don't eat cold-blooded animals. I still don't understand why they bred them like that."

"HURRY!"

Fluffy has no interest in the dead, frozen goat and now charges for the shorter guy; "HEY! Not me stupid, the goat!" He shots, but missing and runs behind his partner.

"What are you doing?"

Shorter guy uses the gun to push his partner towards the snake.

"OH DEAR!" gasps Katherine.

"I've got to save him;" Tentomon tries, but can't digivolve, and collapses.

"You're energy's too low!" says Izzy, feeling guilty; "I shouldn't have rushed you out like that without supper."

While all this is going on, Agumon had sniffed out and found a jar of peanut butter, unopened and still fresh! He's about to devour it when he hears Izzy. Despite his stomach's protests, Agumon looks at the jar, whimpers, and tosses it; "Tentomon, here."

The other digmon's surprised; "Agumon, you sure."

"I'm sure, go rescue that guy."

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"Raidromon, let me down;" shouts Tai from atop an armor-evolved Veemon, "and please stop jerking me around."

"You need to stay off that ankle;" calls Davis, giggling, "and for Raidromon, this is smooth."

Tai hugs his stomach; "You call this smooth? Space Mountain at Disneyland Tokyo is smoother than this."

"Why do all these forms have different names?" ask Rico in a firm tone.

"You can just call me Veemon if you'd like Mr. Rico;" answers Raidromon; "I'm still the same mon in any of my forms."

"Don't call me Mr. Rico; and what's with the mon thing? Do all your names have to end with mon?"

Raidromon gets a puzzled look on his face; "I guess. I've never really thought about it."

"That's just how it is Rico;" answer Davis; "No need to question it."

"You don't seem like the type to question anything."

"HEY!" snaps Davis; "Quit being rude."

"Hey Davis;" calls Tai trying to change the subject; "Didn't Agumon go with you guys to a Romen noodle restaurant the other day?"

"Oh yea. You really should've been there Tai. Agumon sure caused a scene with how much more food he insisted on ordering, we got kicked out for it."

Raidromon looks confused; "I thought we got kicked out because you said the food tasted like Lysol."

Davis gasp; "Well, it did."

"Good grief!" says Rico shaking his head; "Hey where's Oscar." Rico looks back a little and spots him; "No no no Oscar don't roll in that. Don't have time to give you another bath."

Davis giggles; "He sure is making a fuss over that guy."

"Just like you do with Pete at home;" replies Raidromon.

"I DO NOT fuss over Pete like that!"

Tai laughs; "At least Oscar's much smaller then Pete is. Isn't he still growing?"

"I hope not;" answers Davis; "He thinks he's still small enough to get on my lap. He weighs like a hundred pounds!"

"I told you not to feed him so much!" says Raidromon.

"Speak for yourself Veemon!"

Tai's still laughing when he hears his sister's voice calling him. Kari emerges riding on Garurmon with Matt.

"Kari, guys, what is it?"

"You need to come see;" answers Kari. Raidromon races with Davis and Rico struggling to keep up, Oscar having less trouble. The group arrives outside the dining hall and can't believe what they see. People all around the building seen to be fast asleep, Angewoman is hovering above.

"What?" ask a shock Tai; "but how? How can everybody be asleep? Let's go Raidromon.

"No wait?" calls Matt and Garurmon in unison, but Raidromon crashes into something invisible that sends him and Tai back several feet. Raidromon hits the ground hard and changes back to Veemon.

Matt dismounts and offer to help Tai; "I was trying to warn you."

"Thanks a lot;" groans Tai.

"What is this?" ask Veemon feeling the barrier.

"Some kind of invisible barrier;" answers Matt; "It's all around the building. We don't know what it or what's causing it."

"It's like those magical shields or energy fields from fiction;" adds Kari; "nearly everybody within 100 yards of the building is out cold. Even Angewoman can't break it."

"That's insane;" responds Tai banging on it; "What the heck is going on here? This doesn't make any sense. What kind of, whatever this is, is this?"

Oscar barks at the barrier and Veemon charges with a "Vee-Headbutt", resulting in a painful headache and spinning eyes.

"Don't bother Veemon;" says Garurmon; "We've already tried all our tricks."

Rico feels the barrier and suspects magic and has an idea of who did it, but before he can say anything, Davis speaks.

"Guys, are we going to rescue our friends or waste time on this? If this barrier's keeping everybody inside safe, then we don't have to worry about them right now. Right?"

Tai claps his fist togther; "You're right Davis. Let's go get Agumon and Katherine back!"

"And Tentomon and Izzy;" adds Veemon.

Angewoman and Garurmon remind them of what they overheard earlier, hearing that 'Raptor 1' was already on his way to the base. "That must be Agumon!" exclaims Tai; "Maybe they've got Katherine too."

"Why would they be taking her to the base?" ask Matt.

"Because she knows about us, maybe;" Tai kind of shrugs his shoulders; "It's likely."

"It's our only lead;" says Kari.

"True;" agrees Matt, "If we move now, maybe we can still catch them. But what about here, should just we leave this place undefended?"

As much as Angewoman wants to find Agumon (and claw him); she whispers to Kari, who nods. "Angewoman and I will stay behind."

Tai gasp; "What? Are you sure Kari? Is that even a good idea."

"Tai, trust me, we've got this. Angewoman has the best shot at protecting everybody."

"I know, but…"

"We'll stay too;" says Davis in a serious tone. This has nothing to do with his crush on Kari, but to help keep Tai at ease; "You go find your partner Tai."

"Davis;" says Matt; "Garurmon can't fly."

"I can digivolve and leap;" assures the wolf-like digimon.

"Yes, but you need to save your strength."

"I'll stay;" says Rico.

Everybody looks at Rico in shock; "Hey, I may not have digital monster partner, and I don't think I want one, but I'm not useless, and Oscar hear can act as an early warning system."

Everybody looks to Tai for the answer. By now, Tai knows he can trust Rico; "Ok, I trust you guys. Everybody else, let's go!"

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As Fluffy suffocates his partner, the un-empathic lab intern whips his hands and turns towards the trailer; "Sorry buddy, one of us needs to make it out alive. Better me then you." Suddenly, something crashes through the roof, the man nearly goes into shock at the sight of Kabuterimon and screams like a terrified child and runs in a panic.

As Izzy, Agumon, and Katherine watch from an opening in the wall (and relieved for some fresh air; Kabuterimon grabs the upper part of Fluffy's tail, she releases her intended prey and attempts to strangle the giant bug, Kabuterimon sends shock waves through Fluffy, she partly lets go and hisses aggressively at him. As he struggles, Kabuterimon hears some grunts not too far away and realizes what he must do; "Don't watch, this isn't going to be pretty." As Kabuterimon lures Fluffy towards some overgrown brush; Katherine hears the noises and inform the boys, both her and Izzy realizing what's going on. Agumon has no idea and is puzzled.

As Fluffy holds onto her opponent's arm with her bite, Kabuterimon uses his shock to scare 3 giant boars from the brush and forces the snake to look at them. Kin for the easier prey, Fluffy lets go of the digimon goes for the fat hog.

Having emerged from the tailor and successfully resuscitated Fluffy's victim, Izzy turns his head; "Yikes, I don't ever want to see that."

"It's not that bad once you get used to it;" assures Katherine, who had guided Izzy with her CPR knowledge, despite feeling a little sorry for the pig.

Izzy's shocked; "You've got a pet snake?"

Katherine laughs; "Of course not. The retreat campgrounds my brother lives at has two rescued pythons. I got to help care for them last summer."

"Good grief!" says Izzy wide-eyed; "That's something I don't find prodigious."

"I think snakes are quite prodigious."

Izzy looks at her; "You know what prodigious means right?"

She smiles; "Remarkably or impressively great in extend, size, or degree; unnatural or abnormal."

Izzy raises his eyes; impressed.

"Watch out Izzy;" says Kabuterimon returning; "I think you've meet a rival."

"I wonder if Fluffy will share that pig with me;" says Agumon drooling. Everybody gives him funny looks; "What? I love pork."

They all shake their heads, when a sound comes from the egg. The group stares in awe as the egg moves and cracks, Katherine's heart is racing with anticipation. The top cracks open and topples off, then for the next several seconds, all is quiet and nothing. Agumon gently moves closer; "Hello in there, come on out, we're your friends." Slowly, a tiny lite gray head with big blue eyes peeks out and looks around at everybody.

"Kat, Kat?"

Katherine's heart is in her throat, but she can't get the words out. She moves closer, kneels down, and smiles; "Hello, I'm Kat." The baby's eyes light up; "Kat Kat!" She leaps out of the egg and into her partner's arms.

 **Fun trivia fact: Snakes don't have ears.**


	13. Chapter 13

**To my guest reviewer: Sorry I haven't figured out how to respond to you. Happy New Year to you too. I actually did know that fact but thanks for sharing it. And thank you for reviewing. Sorry this took awhile, but here's the next chapter.**

Everybody stares in awe as Katherine embraces her newborn digimon. Agumon (really wishing Tai was here to see this) and even Izzy can't hold back tears of joy, while also getting soaked from Kabuterimon's tears. When they finally get a good look at the baby, the boys realize that she doesn't look like any baby digimon they've ever seen. She's very light gray with big baby blue eyes, a tiny mouth, an oval shape head that gets thinner all the way down to the tail, which curves upward. None of the boys are willing to check to confirm the sex, but Katherine's positive her partner's female, so they take her word for it. She's also a bit smaller than most digimon babies, approximately only 5 inches long (maybe 7in if the tail was straight) Izzy even saying that she's the size of a shrimp and even kind of looks like one.

Katherine hates the comparison and disagrees, "She's a seahorse! Look at her tail."

"How can you be certain she'll digivolve into a seahorse?" ask Izzy.

"Because that's how I imagined her, along with wings and the crest of a Parasaurolophus."

This puzzles Izzy and Kabuterimon as there's no such digimon matching that description that they know of. Izzy really wishes he had his laptop with him, but if this just happens to be a new type of digimon, she may not be in the database yet. Neither have they ever heard of a digimon that somebody imagines just appearing. He really dose feel lost and frustrated without his computer.

When the baby spots Kabuterimon, she freaks and buries her head into her partner's arms. Agumon comes up and gently strokes the newborn, assuring her there's nothing to fear. Recognizing the voice, the baby peeks and takes her first real look at the orange dinosaur. Her eyes lighten up and she jumps on him, knocking him down.

"Da Da."

"Huh?" The baby nuzzles Agumon's face and kisses him tenderly. Izzy and Kabuterimon look at each other awkwardly.

"What did she just call me?" ask the perplexed dino.

"Da Da;" she repeats.

While Katherine laughs, Izzy's eyes are bugged out; "Does she think Agumon's her, daddy?"

"Aw;" says Kabuterimon, "I never thought Agumon would become a daddy."

"What a minute;" says the perplexed digimon as the baby keeps nuzzling him; "I'm not her…..;" he pauses as the baby looks at him with those innocent blue eyes; "Well, she is awfully cute. I guess I do have something to do with her being here, but….;" Katherine pick up her partner and nods at Agumon; "Well, I guess she can call me whatever she wants, at least until she digivolves. By the way Baby, what's your name?"

The baby gives a questionable look, then looks up at Katherine; "Oh that's right, you need a name. How about Nixie?"

The baby leaps with joy and kisses her partner.

"Niximon?" ask Izzy; "Why Niximon?"

"Nixie means 'little water sprite" from German folk lore;" explains Katherine.

That's something Izzy didn't even know, or at least he can't recall coming across it before, although he might have. He hasn't read through the General Encyclopedia since year two of grade school.

Suddenly, they hear a very high pitch, hysterical scream. The young man has come to, pointing nervously at Kabuterimon, and faints again.

"What should I do with him Izzy?" ask Kabuterimon.

"Just let him be. Actually, no, wake him up, I have some questions for him."

The giant bug shakes the intern until he comes to again. He's scared stiff at first, then screams in gibberish. Agumon attempting to comfort him doesn't help.

"Hey man, you don't need to be afraid, we're not going to hurt you."

"You, you you you...why are you talking?" He faints again, Kabuterimon catching him; "Oh no you don't."

"Why do you keep fainting?" ask Agumon; "Are you as famished as I am?"

"No, no no no;" the man keeps shaking; "What what what are you?" He looks up at the giant bug again, screams, looks at Agumon, and screams again. Kabuterimon clunks him on the head; "This is ridiculous."

"Knock it off!" demands Izzy, the man snaps at attention; "What a minute!" He feels all over himself; "Wasn't I, didn't he? WHY AM I ALIVE?!"

"Because we rescued you;" explains Izzy, pointing to Kabuterimon; "Or rather, he did."

"THAT THING RESCUED ME!" he replies in disbelief; "How? That can't be right. Nobody ever rescues me. You want something don't you? Oh my gosh! Fluffy, where's Fluffy? Yoshi will kill me! Oh NO! I'm not supposed to call her Yoshi! She'll triple kill me!"

"Yoshi?" ask Agumon; "Is that the crazy plant lady?"

"Crazy?! You don't know the half of it. Wait! Stop talking to me! You're freaking me out!"

Kabuterimon looks at Izzy; "This guy works with giant carnivorous plants and a giant, over-muscled snake and he's freaked out by a talking dinosaur."

Despite repeated attempts to reassure him, the panicked young man just keeps distancing himself and wants them to go away, finally running. They finally decide to give up on him when Agumon tugs on Izzy's pants, then collapses. "Agumon!" Izzy picks him and is about to tell everyone to quickly resume the search for the notes, when suddenly a fire ball lands on the trailer remains and set them on fire. Another fire ball lands close to Izzy with enough force to knock him off his feet and drop Agumon. Yet another fire ball lands a distance away, they look like Agumon's Pepper Breath, but they aren't coming from him. Then, Kabuterimon calls out to Izzy, growing smaller and smaller until he disappears.

"KABUTERIMON!"

They hear a creepy laugh and look up, the other young intern has returned, holding something in both hands, along with what looks like a dark, glowing book actually floating next to him.

"That's one major obstacle out of the way."

Izzy, who almost never loses his cool, has a rare glare of anger in his eyes; "What did you do with Kabuterimon? Give him back!"

"He's alright;" answers the young man showing a small green cube; "It's just a data cube, not a mana cube, it won't hurt him. Professor's been wanting a digital monster for his experiments, since mana cubes kill digital monsters, hence the data cube."

Izzy runs towards the intern, who tries to attack again; "Flame magic Time Bomb…;" but his flame goes out. "What? Hey, I shouldn't be anywhere near out of magic;" he slaps the thing in his other hand; "Come on you, why do always fail me when I need you."

Izzy, who almost never resorts to force, punches the guy in the face and tries to grab the cube, when all of a sudden he can't move a muscle and falls forward. He's still conscious, but he can't move a single muscle. Somehow this guy has paralyzed him. He can see a giant needle point floating in front of the man, which disappears in a cloud of smoke. This especially shocks Izzy and Agumon, as they've never seen non-weapon attacks coming from a human before.

 _Is this guy even human?_ Wonders Izzy; _No, there's a number of ways he could be doing this._

Katherine, however, has a feeling he might actually be a real mage (a pathetic one), although this is the first time she's seen any in action. Agumon's furious and tries to get up, but he's too weak and only collapses again, unable to conger up any smoke at all. Katherine puts Niximon next to Agumon, gets in front of them holding a large piece of metal, and quickly tries to study her opponent.

"Kat don't!" cries Agumon

The intern only laughs; "What's this? Are you brave or are you stupid little girl?"

The floating book turns the pages on it's on; "This should be fun: Poison Curse Magic Dwelling of the Poison Cloud." Nothing happens, Katherine and especially Agumon are beyond perplexed by what he's trying to do. "Huh;" he looks at the book; "Wrong page! Stupid grimoire, that's not the spell I want! Oof!" He gets slapped in the face by Niximon. Katherine and Agumon both gasp.

Niximon looks at the man with angry eyes, he gets in her face and laughs; "What's this little pips squeak, a shrimp?" Now the baby's really angry and starts jumping on his head; "Ouch! Yech! Owe owe get off! Get off of me you little pips squeak. Hey, get out of my shirt."

As the intern laughs uncontrollably, Agumon calls to Katherine and has an idea. He tells her he'll roll up into a ball and for her to kick him like she would a soccer ball (he and Tai did this years ago). Despite her concern, she does what Agumon says and kicks him. He lands and grabs onto the man's back, irritating him. As Nixie emerges from the bottom of the pants leg, Agumon bits him and Katherine grabs the grimoire. He furiously throws Agumon off him.

"Nice try;" he summons the grimoire back to him, which becomes too hot for Katherine to handle. Then he realizes that he's missing something, the cube and the amulet are both gone, Agumon has them.

"Why you! Give those back!" Katherine trips him and he falls flat on the ground. He recovers enough and makes a charge towards Agumon (one his hands and knees), but Niximon jumps in and blows bobbles in his face. Rubbing the soapy water from his face and mouth, he frustrated; "So you three think you're so tough, I can perform magic without that amulet. Poison Curse Magic Aufwachen Dachs."

Agumon grabs Niximon and tucks her underneath his arm, bracing himself, however, nothing happens.

"Huh?" goes the intern; "Not again;" he turns his hands towards himself; "Come on, you worked every time in practice. Poison Curse Magic Aufwachen Dachs." Dark clouds come from his hands; "YIKES!" Right behind him, the dark cloud takes the shape of two badgers that proceed to attack him."

"HEY! You're not supposed to attack me!"

Agumon looks at Nixie; "This is too weird. I've never seen anything like this. I wonder if this guy's actually a digimon."

Although digimon don't usually have multiple attack components like this.

"What are you doing?!" comes a voice; the taller guy has returned; "You're using your magic?! Professor and Yoshi told you not too."

"They're not here stupid! Wait! You're aliv…..oh never mind."

"Please put the grimoire away, don't you remember what happened last time?"

The shorter man gets up; "What, are you still freaked out by that 3-foot tarantula I conquered up?"

"No, something worse!"

"If you mean another Sh'Gora, I can't do that! I wouldn't even if I could, I'm not stupid!"

Short intern feels something hit him, it was a metal object thrown by Katherine; "OUCH! Why you little….!" Something else hits him, this time thrown by Agumon; "YOU LITTLE PESTS! You really think you can put a fight against me!" He feels something tickling him and he laughs uncontrollable. Niximon has reentered his shirt. He tries hysterically to get her out. Katherine runs up and kicks him hard in the private spot, hurting him enough to scream and throb with pain. Again, Katherine grabs the grimoire, him being too distracted to notice. While all this is going on, the tall intern runs to Izzy and injects him with some dark glowing liquid. Agumon, horrified, tries to drag himself over to them, calling for Katherine, she too scrambles, calling Nixie, who follows her.

"Don't worry!" tall guy calls; "This is anti-liquid, it'll counteract the poison."

Within a second, Izzy can feel himself starting to move again and springs up; "What's going here? What was that poison he used on me and what did you use to counteract it?"

"Just my way of saying thank you."

Short guy recovers and tries using his fire balls, but they are now nothing more than candle flares; "RATS! HEY, where my grimoire?"

"Over there;" calls Agumon pointing, using every ounce of energy and breath can muster.

"Over where?"

"There. Go over and look."

The foolish man goes to where Agumon's pointing, only for Fluffy to lash out at him.

"No no no Fluffy, don't spit out your food! We're friends remember?" Fluffy gives a couple warning strikes; the man points; "Poison Curse Magic Poison Needle;" nothing happens; "Rats! I need the amulet!" Fluffy again strikes at him, just barely missing him. He runs off in a panic, and Fluffy returns to her meal.

Tall intern turns to Izzy, sweating and shaking; "You need to go, 'NOW'."

"Just a moment Mr. Panic;" says Izzy assertively; "I've got about a million questions for you. First, how do I get Tentomon out of that cube?"

"Cube, don't tell it's the Perfect Cube!" Intern responds nervously.

"Perfect Cube? He called it a Data Cube?"

Intern calms down a little; "Oh. He must be a digital creature. Data cubs don't work on magical creatures. A perfect cube would have killed him instantly, as in really kill him."

"How do I get him out?!" Izzy's fist are cringed.

"I…I don't know. They never told me."

Just then, Izzy's digivice goes off; "Of course. Tentomon's calling for help. I'll get him out."

"Izzy!" calls Katherine, "I hear a big rig coming."

"YOSHI!" yells the Intern; "You must leave NOW."

Izzy's about to say he's still got much to ask him; but Katherine intervenes; "Yes. We must get Agumon and Nixie out of here. The plants obey her, she's a sociopath, and she's an awful musician!"

"You've got that right;" agrees the intern; "Her tricks are far deadly then my brother's, and she's got far more than just the Audreys, you don't stand a chance. Go now!"

"Aren't you coming with us?" ask Katherine.

Intern shakes his head; "I can't leave my brother, he really is a good guy on the inside. Oh here."

He hands Izzy a notebook and piece of paper; "Hope this helps. Oh and don't bother taking that grimoire, it'll just come right back to him. Get away now!" He runs away.

"What a second!"

"Izzy;" calls Katherine; "Get Agumon!"

Izzy rans to Agumon, whose face down in the dirt with worried Niximon nudging him; "Da Da?" Izzy picks him up; "Come on, the town's this way." Katherine, who's already got the cube and amulet, picks up Niximon and sympathetically looks towards the young man. She finally runs, silently saying a prayer.

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Matt and Tai ride on Garurumon while Davis and Ex-Veemon hover overhead.

"You guys sure you don't want to ride with us?" calls Davis; "It'd be much faster."

"Just keep an eye out for that truck;" calls Matt.

As they fly on ahead, Ex-Veemon smells what he thinks is some funky smoke. He looks that direction; "Davis, look!"

They fly down and tell the guys they see heavy smoke and a large orange blaze. They decide to investigate. As they get closer, Davis and his digimon can see a military truck in the distance.

"Hang on Agumon, Katherine;" says Tai, "We're coming."

As Davis and Ex-Veemon fly in closer, something shoots at them, it's a rocket bomb and they barely get out of the way. Two more fire; "Vee-Laser;" Ex-Veemon gets them both, then nothing more. They land and meet up with the others.

"Somebody's here alright;" says Ex-Veemon.

They decide to investigate. The smell and heat get worse as they get closer. Garurumon has to put out a couple separate fires. Finally, they reach a clearing, which looks like a bomb went off, or rather, several small bombs. Engulfed in flames looks like the remains of a trailer and a barn.

"What happened here?" ask Tai.

"Do you think Agumon did this?" ask Ex-Veemon.

"This isn't Agumon's work;" answers Garurumon.

"This place smells like a garbage dump on fire;" says Davis holding his nose. The digimon agree, trying not to breathe, Tai and Matt both cover their noses with their shirts. Everybody finds themselves coughing between breathes.

"Let's get out of here;" says Tai running away from the smoke. Forgetting about his hurt ankle, he falls over, causing Davis to bump into him, and they tumble and roll on the ground. They hear an angry hiss next to them and are freak out to see a giant snake head striking at them. They both hollower and stumble to their feet.

"A MONSTER SNAKE!" yells Davis as the snake bites him on the right forearm, then let's go as if giving a warning. The guys can't believe what they're seeing.

"You've definitely got the monster part right;" gulps Tai; "back away!" Fluffy strikes again and moves towards them. However, when they get far enough away, she relaxes and returns to digesting her meal, but keeps a sharp eye on them. It's only them do they realize that Davis has been bit and bleeding from two large teeth holes.

"Davis, you alright?" ask Ex-Veemon and Tai in unison.

"It's just blood;" assures Davis; taking off his vest and wrapping it around the wound; "If that's a python or, that other big snake from the Amazon, then I don't think they're poisonous."

"That sure does look like a Burmese Python;" replies Matt; "but that's the biggest and thickest snake I've ever seen outside of a movie, and since when do snakes have hair?"

"I'd hate to know what he ate;" says Davis; "He's big enough to eat Garurumon."

Garurumon growls at Davis while Matt slaps him; "That's not funny Davis."

"Sorry, can't you guys take a joke."

Matt tries to make sure that Davis is securing the vest properly over the wound and applying the right pressure, much the younger boy's annoyance. They keep moving for a few more minutes, Tai taking out his digivice hoping to pick up on Agumon, or even Izzy, but gets nothing. The other two boys get nothing on their digivices neither. Then, they start to hear some strange growls and snapping, telling the champion level digimon to hold back while they check it out, they peak and gasp heavily. There are dozens, maybe hundreds of the carnivorous plants in pots, of various sizes, some as small the boys hands, some standing as high as the boys. Most of them are extremely snapping and sound angry.

Suddenly, several sparks appear seemly out of nowhere, a couple of them setting small fires. They spot some young man, with a dark glowing book floating in midair next to him, to their surprise and bewilderment. He seems very frustrated, angrily stomping his foot several times over.

"Blast that dinosaur, swapping my amulet like that, now I'm at half power without it. Flame Magic Exploding Time Bomb." He congers up a few sparks, and they nearly explode in his face like fireworks; "RATS! That's not supposed to happen."

"Maybe you'd better quit before you run low on mana;" says the taller intern; "and before Miss Yos….."

"FLUNKY!" calls a very angry woman's voice; "Put away that grimoire and get over here. NOW!"

He closes the grimoire, which has quite glowing, and puts it in his pouch. "Yes boss lady. Sure thing your highness. One of these days she'll be my flunky."

"What was that?!"

"Nothing Miss Yoshi!"

A plants comes to him and shoots poison in his face, barely giving him enough time to hollow in pain before grabbing him by the neck and chocking him blue, his brother can only watch in horror.

"I TOLD YOU NEVER TO CALL ME YOSHI!"

The young man can barely breath; "Sorry Miss Yoshida."

She plays her flute (pitifully), and the plant lets him go.

"Now get back to work or you know what I'll do with you!"

Tai's group sure wants to get out there and destroy those plants, but agree they should try to find the others first. Tai thinks he hears a growl, which sure does sound like Agumon's stomach. He holds up his digivice and heads towards it.

"Tai, what are doing?" ask Matt.

Tai tells him to listen and points his digivice at a hole in a tree, but it doesn't react; "Darn, I was sure that sounded like Agumon's growling gut."

"Tai, LOOK OUT!" shouts Davis. A boar jumps out of the hole and jumps on top of Tai, but Ex-Veemon grabs it and tosses it over the bushes. However, it's too late as a vine has snatched Tai, as well as Matt and Davis and the digimon. Once again, these are giant plants, about the size of Ex-Veemon. The champion level digimon are able to free themselves, but before they can free the boys, more plants arrive, as does the tone deaf lady, 2 more assistants in addition to the first two, and even a few military soldiers.

"Well well;" says Miss Yoshida; "Intruders. Well, we'll just to teach you guys a lesson for sticking your noises where they don't belong." She plays her flute again, the plants start to suffocate the digimon and shoot high levels of poison on them until they de-digivolve back into their rookie forms. Somehow, the vines around Tai loosen their grip and he manages to get free, but is recaptured by the interns. The plants carry Tai's friends away while Miss Yoshida sneers an evil grin at him.

"What are doing to my friends, psycho plant lady?"

Miss Yoshida appears taken aback by that; "You must have me mixed up with my Dad, and they'll be fine for now;" she answers snarly; "If you're looking for a yellow dinosaur and a girl as well as a teenage boy, something described as a giant insect, and a gray little shrimp, you can say goodbye to them. Nobody escapes the Tracker."

The short intern with the grimoire looks horrified; "The the Tracker? You're turning the Tracker loose."

"Yes the Tracker;" she confirms; "Now where's Fluffy? I need her too. You and you're incompetent brother are lucky I need the extra pair of hands, otherwise, you two would be chow already, just like your sister! Now get back to work!"

Short intern immediately starts loading the small plants and other stuff onto the truck. His brother looks at Tai, hesitating, but a threating look from Miss Yoshida sends him racing.

Tai's reclaimed by a plant and his mouth covered. He has to figure a way out of this, and fast!

 _Did she say a gray little shrimp?_

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Izzy fiddles with his digivice and the cube while trying to balance Agumon, who's draped over his shoulder. Katherine's been lighting the way and keeping track of the road while also having to chase a very curious Nixie. Izzy's very frustrated and impatient, if only he had his laptop, or at least find a computer. However, that's not the only problem.

"Agumon, stop that, I'm trying to concentrate."

Agumon feels Izzy's being very unsympathetic; "I can't help it that I'm SO FAMISHED. I haven't eaten a decent size snack or meal in SO LONG!"

"Not your stomach;" replies Izzy; "Your tail. Get it out my face!"

Agumon blushes in embarrassment; "Oops, sorry."

"And don't even try to start nibbling on me or my watch and cell phone again;" adds Izzy; I understand you're starving Agumon, but please control yourself."

"I wasn't nibbling;" explains Agumon; "I was just licking you."

"Agumon, didn't I just tell you to stop;" then Izzy realizes something; "Wait, you're on my right side, then whose?" Nixie is one Izzy's left shoulder, tugging on his ear. "Stop it Niximon. What are you doing?"

"Kat, Kat."

"What about Kat?"

"Izzy look;" says Agumon. Katherine is a few yards behind, walking slowly and breathing heavily.

"Katherine;" says Izzy; "You're exhausted."

"I'm ok;" she answers in a tired voice; "Just needed to catch my breath."

"We'll rest."

"No;" replies Katherine; "Agumon needs food and Tentomon's in that cube. Let's keep going."

Izzy knows she's right, but he's been known to be unsympathetic when too concentrated. This isn't going to be one of those times. Instead of stopping entirely, Izzy slows his pace, apologizing to Tentomon that it'll be just a little longer.

"Hey, what about me?" goes Agumon impatiently.

"You too;" says Izzy slightly annoyed. They find a road sign that says the town limits are 1 mile, and a gas station convenient store in just half a mile.

"FINALLY! FOOD!" Agumon's so excited that the kicks Izzy's chest."

"Calm down Agumon. Finally computer access, at least there better be. Hang on Tentomon, I'll have you out of there real soon."

They have no idea that just down the road, something strange and nasty is tracking them.


	14. Chapter 14

**Hello everybody. Hope everybody is staying safe and well. Things are just so crazy in the world right now and both my husband and I have been going to work physically pretty much for the whole pandemic. We got to return to worship today at the church building again after two months of attending service online. I also did my dance classes and rehearsals online and we did our recital at the studio virally.**

 **Plus like most Digimon fans; we've been frustrated at the extended delay of Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna and not knowing when. We had bought tickets for the March 25 showing, which of course was postponed.**

 **I've been so busy I've baring had time to sit down at the computer and concentrate, but I've finally completed the next chapter. Hope this was worth the wait.**

 **Chapter 14**

Kari wonders around the barrier while Angewoman patrols overhead. While there are a few stragglers on other parts of the campgrounds, most everybody is inside the barrier. Part of the military received orders to report elsewhere earlier, some have posted guard pickets outside of the campgrounds, while most those who remained are within the barrier. Kari can feel power from it, but has no idea what kind of power this is. Rico is certain he knows who's behind this, thanks to his snooping. At first, he wanted to tell Kari his theory, but remembering what he learned from his encounter with Agumon earlier, decides against it. None the less, he searches, hoping to catch his suspect in action, however, he has no such luck.

After a very long time of silence, Rico realizes that Kari's getting very tense and looks worried. Believing that it will lighten the mood and make her smile, he decides to playfully flirt with her. Like most, or rather all the guys on Tai's team, Rico has a bit of crush on Kari, and has just the pick-up to make her laugh.

"Hey Kari, you got a burger to go with that shake?"

Kari stops dead in her tracks; "What did you just say?"

"I said, you got a burger to go with that shake, ya sexy thing. By the way, you're glowing. The moonlight shining on your face really makes my day."

She doesn't take that well; "Rico, stop it. I'm sorry, but you're not funny. You weren't funny yesterday either."

Rico's taken aback; "Jeez Kari, I just want you to lighten up, you seem worried. Besides, flirting is the art of making a man feel pleased with himself."

"Not that way please, and I have every right to be worried."

Angewomon lands in front of Rico with her hands firmly on her hips; "You better not be upsetting Kari, Mr. Rico?"

Rico rolls his eyes; "I was just trying to be nice. My ex-girlfriends still laugh at my jokes."

 _Ex-girlfriends?_ Angewoman and Kari look at each in disbelief, Rico shakes his head; "Jeez you people, can't take a little joke. Say Angewomon, you've got really fine jugs."

Angewoman punches him (with almost no effort on her part); "Keep your perverted thoughts to yourself."

Rico rubs his head and slowly gets up, he's surprised he's not bleeding; "What do mean by that? Girls usually love that line."

Suddenly, they hear Oscar barking, running towards the camp entrance, along with some other dogs not caught in barrier. They follow the dogs and discover more military vehicles arriving. At first Angewomon braces herself for attack, but is surprised to see Angemon flying along with them.

"It's alright Angewomon, they're with us."

Even more surprising is seeing T.K. exiting a military jeep, Aquilamon arrives with Yolei.

"More digimon?" says Rico exasperated.

"Hey Kari, you're a sight for sore eyes;" says T.K. Kari smiles, Rico wondering why she smiles at this guy's joke, but not his. Yolei and Aquilamon land as Kari ask what's going on.

"Well," starts Yolei; "We're afraid things are worse than we thought;" she notices Rico standing next to Kari, listening to them; "Aw, who's he? Is it ok that he's here?"

"Is that a problem?" replies Rico, cringing his fist. Aquilamon gets between his partner and Rico, giving him a stern look. After sorting things out, the group and the Coronel quickly explain that Dr. Yoshida bit into a poison capsule to avoid further integration and is currently in a catatonic state, however, an animus tip came in about some even bigger and deadly plant monsters (and something else) being keep in what's supposed to be a decommission and abandoned fortress deep in the woods, and to prepare for a major battle. The military, the kids and their digimon agree to work together.

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Izzy, Katherine, and Niximon move along at a somewhat slow pace beside the road. Agumon's now nestled on Izzy's left shoulder, having fallen into an uneasy sleep. Ironically, it's now Izzy who's struggling to keep pace with the exhausted Katherine, especially feeling Agumon's dead weight in his arms. They stop only momentary to catch their breaths and Izzy puts Agumon down just for a second, then picks him up in a cradle position. Agumon becomes half-awake for only 20 seconds, asking for food, then goes back to sleep. The convenient store shouldn't be much further. Even Niximon, who's been off the wall energetic and curious since hatching, starts to look tired, coughing with her tiny tongue hanging out of her mouth, meaning that she's getting thirsty. Her smooth, silky baby skin is even feeling dry. Katherine's throat is bone cotton dry, yet she turns down the last of Izzy's Oolong tea. Nixie takes a sip, only to spit it out with a clear yuck face. Izzy himself has only drank half a bottle, giving the remaining 3 and a half bottles that he had to Agumon. They are too far away from the river now to take a detour towards it.

A few minutes later, Nixie suddenly perks up and bounces out of her partner's arms. Katherine gives chance and soon finds the baby drinking and splashing in a stream. She calls for Izzy and they both take drinks, hoping that the water's not contaminated, then fill up the empty tea bottles. In addition, Nixie returns to her previous bounciness, as well as her skin to its previous silky softness after getting good and soaked. Both humans wonder if she needs constant water to both drink and soak in, just like Gomamon dose. Agumon, who's not thirsty after the tea, is dismayed; wanting food much more then water. In addition, he ends up rolling into the water, upset about getting all wet again, but with Nixie playfully splashing, bouncing on and sliding off him, he can't help but smile and laugh too.

Now if only some fish would show up.

Suddenly, Niximon stops playing and seems distracted by something. She sniffs the air. "What is it Baby, you smell fish?" asks Agumon hopefully. Nixie makes a terrible face, then starts to look a little scared, and jumps back into her partner's arms shaking.

Katherine and Izzy try to sniff the air, but they can't really make anything out; "Izzy, do you smell anything strange?"

"Only the usual musty outdoor smells."

"Ugh, foul odor;" says Agumon; "Can't I smell something delicious for a change."

Katherine then starts to notice the smell slightly, it smells like dead animals in a garbage dump, even worse than the smell of the trailer.

"Izzy, something's coming."

Izzy still can't smell anything, but then a strange sound comes seemly out of nowhere. "What was that?"

They hear the sound again, some kind of shrike. Nixie is clearly disturbed by the sound and hides in her partner's shirt.

"What is that?" asks Agumon, "sounds like the sound that Godzillia monster makes."

"You're right Agumon, it does;" agrees Izzy, "but no real life animal makes that sound, Hollywood invited it."

"No natural creature," adds Katherine.

The shriek, and the stink, are getting closer. This sound is soon accompanied by what looks like an elephant snout emerging from the bushes. The long snout is clearly sniffing around. The group backs into the spring when a very odd creature emerges. With the exception of the trunk, it doesn't resemble an elephant at all, but rather a hunchback, dinosaur-like creature with a long horn on top of its head, plum skin, and orange eyes. It emerged on all four legs, but then it stands up and walks towards them on two.

"It's tracking us!" Yells Izzy, picking up Agumon and running.

"What is that Izzy?" Asks the digimon, unable to really see the creature due to his blurry vision, however, he sure can smell him.

"I don't know," replies Izzy. Before tonight, he would've said this was a digimon, now however, he isn't so sure. The Tracker shrieks again and aims it's trunk at the group. A large black blob shoots from it trunk, the humans just barely mange to get out of the way and the blob lands in the water, floating on the surface, and steam coming from it.

"It's tar!" yells Katherine as the Tracker aims again.

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Tai is inside a covered jeep tied up by some sticky stuff that seems to be exceptionally strong spider threads. Everything's happening in such a rush he hasn't had time to rap his head around anything. He caught a glimpse of the Tracker with the eerie Godzilla scream, making his ears hurt. He has no idea where they've taken the others, plus his digivice and phone have been confiscated.

On top of everything, Tai was forced to watch the psycho-mob force Fluffy to regurgitate a partially digested pig, cover her face, give her shots, force her into a too small crate, and put it into the jeep right next to him.

 _Why was I forced to watch that?_ Shivers go down Tai's back at the angry hissing coming from the crate; _and why is her name Fluffy?_ Tai struggles against the sticky webs, but the more he struggles, the stronger and stickier they become. Then the two male interns enter.

"Sally thinks she's so smart, just because she can control her spells and I can't;" says the short guy called Flunky; "And why do we have to guard the new hostage and ride in the same truck as Fluffy? At least she's sedated. Hey, what do you think you're doing?"

"Driving;" says tall intern.

"Oh no you don't!" Flunky tries to conjure up a flame, but it puffs out; "DARN IT! My magic hasn't recovered yet. What makes you think you're driving?"

"Cause I've actually got a driver's license."

"You drive like a woman!" Flunky grabs his brother hard by the arm and throws him out of the way, bumping him into and getting stuck with Tai; "Now stay out of my way you piece of vomit! Fluffy should've eaten you when she had the chance."

Tai's appalled by that and tries again to get free. "Don't bother;" says Intern; "You're making it worse." The jeep moves with a suddenly jerk and they take off rather fast, Tai feels nauseous and mums through his covered mouth. "Oh, let me help you with that;" says Intern surprising Tai. He takes out a pocket knife. _Huh? How's he going to cut through this stuff with that?_ Then a creepy green glow comes from Intern, forming around the knife; "Wind Magic, Severing Blade."

Tai closes his eyes and the next thing he knows, he's mouth is free.

"What the heck was that? What are you some kind of magician?"

Intern isn't sure he should tell him anything, but he longs to talk with somebody who isn't a psycho-path wacko; "Are you friends with the group the Tracker went after?"

"YES!" exclaims Tai; "Where are they? What happened? Are they going to be alright? Agumon can't digivolve without me? What's that thing that went after them? How strong is it? I hope Kabuterimon can beat that thing!" Tai's out of breath and realizes he got carried away, yet he has so many questions running through his brain.

"Kabuterimon, the giant insect?" says Intern; "That may be a problem."

"Why? What happened?"

"Well;" Intern rubs his fingers together and fidgets; "My brother...Whoa!" The jeep jerks, it feels like a totally smashed out drunk is driving.

"Jeez;" says Tai; "Who taught him how to drive?"

Intern's embarrassed; "Himself. Anyway, he trapped that giant bug into a data cube."

"A WHAT!" shouts Tai; "He can get out can he?"

Intern shrugs his shoulders; "I really can't answer that. Only Yoshi and Sally know how they work. In fact, I think they haven't even tested them yet. They tried to capture digital creatures with mana cubes but those killed them instantly, as in completely erase them, so they created these data cubes. They've been wanting to catch digital creatures for several months for experiments, maybe creating a magic-digital hybrid creature. They're no limit to their curiosity and experiments really. Professor's also interested in the plant-type digital creatures, do you know of any?"

"I'm really not following you...ouff;" comes another jerk; "How do I get out here? Where are they taking us? Where are my friends? And where's my digivice?"

"Slow down;" says Intern; "You're going too fast. Actually, I should've have told you any of that, I'll be quadrupole killed for sure."

"I don't want to get you into any trouble;" replies Tai; "but I really need to know what happened to my friends, all of them? Maybe I can help you too?"

Intern gives a little shy smile; "They've already helped me once, and it's not like I'm going to get out of this alive. Ok, they probably took your friends to the abandoned cave fortress, and I know where your stuff is;" he pauses and takes a deep breath; "So you own one of those digital creatures too? Do you own that starving yet kind orange dinosaur or the feisty gray shrimp?"

"First off pal, we don't own any of them, they're our partners, not pets. Agumon, the kind, starving dinosaur is mine. How is he? Is he ok? Wait a minute;" Tai pauses; "Gray shrimp? That's the second time I've heard that tonight. What gray shrimp?"

"The one that gave my brother a run for his money;" smirks Intern; "That sure was funny."

"I don't know any gray shrimp. Anyway, we're rambling on here;" says Tai; "Can that trick of yours get me loose?"

Intern looks down; "Well, I guess it can, but if I help you escape, they'll know."

"So, escape with me."

Intern freaks; "NO! I CAN'T!" Another jerk and crash suggest that Flunky has hit something. The crate also moves and hits the back, followed by a series of more jerks as Flunky tries to back out. The crate move again and nearly sits on top Tai and Intern. Fluffy hiss angrily from the inside.

"Jeez this girl's heavy;" says Intern. They can hear Fluffy banging on the top, trying to get out. "She's waking up!"

"Free us, NOW!" says Tai.

"But….but….I can't leave my brother."

"We'll take him with us;" suggest Tai.

"What, are you crazy? I'm no match for him, despite the fact that he's a pathetic mage."

"HURRY!"

Intern manages to get out a book, his own grimoire. It glows light green, floats and opens, freaking out Tai.

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Izzy and company have entered a large pond and back up into a waterfall, hoping that the Tracker might lose their scents, unfortunately, to no avail. They had tried hiding in some stinky plants to no avail, and they refused to cover themselves in animal dung when Katherine suggested it, really not wanting to do it herself. The thing can stiff them out by both air and water. So far they've just barely avoided being hit by tar, and it can eat through large rocks and thick tree trunks like acid. Izzy thinks real hard, but he's not sure how to fight this thing. Just 3 hours ago, Izzy would've assumed all these creatures were digimon, now however, he's sure none of them are. Tracker keeps shooting, some tar causing a tree to fall right slap down the middle between Izzy and Agumon and Katherine and Nixie, startling them. Tracker shoots again, this time, Izzy gets hit in the arm, causing him to drop Agumon into the water. His arm feels like it's on fire.

"If only Tentomon could get free;" says Izzy as he feel inside his pocket, but he can't feel the cube. Just a drop of tar got on his pocket and burned a hole, causing the cub to fall out and float in the water; "NO TENTOMON!"

"I'll get him." Agumon tries to find the cube, but his vision's so blurry he keeps missing it, plus he's got water in his eyes.

"Agumon, to the right, further;" calls Izzy as he soaks his arm in the water. His's far too pumped to really notice how painful it is.

"AGUMON!" Katherine jumps from the tree trunk and jumps in front of Agumon, taking the blast of tar that was meant for him.

"KAT NO!"

"Kat Kat!" Nixie bounces from the tree and goes to her partner. She's furious and turns around to face the Tracker.

"Baby NO!" shouts Agumon; "You can't fight him unless you digivolve."

Tracker shoots and Niximon gets completely covered by burning tar. Agumon calls out to her again in tears, failing to notice the glow coming from Katherine's digivice. Suddenly, a sea blue glow comes from the tar and it burst. The glow intensifies and the next thing they know, a dome water barrier is covering them, successfully blocking the Tracker's repeated attacks. Agumon looks up and can just barely make out a still small creature with wings controlling the water barrier and thinks he's seeing an angel. Izzy is shocked by what he sees, and Katherine opens her eyes to see flying above her the very digimon she saw in her mind. Niximon's now shaped like a seahorse, with cream-colored skin. Her pestle colored wings are a hybrid between butterfly, dragon, and angel wings, with blue rings lining out the wings. Nixie briefly looks down at her partner, revealing a sea-horse like face with round edges, the same baby blue eyes, and the pink heart on her right check, completed with the Parasaurolophus crest on top of her head.

Izzy is both shocked and amazed by what he sees. If this really is Niximon? Her size is smaller than Gatomon, yet this power is at least Champion/Adult level. Did this newly created, freshly hatched digimon just jumped three digivolution levels in an instant? Izzy's never seen that before. To a lesser extent, Agumon's wondering the same things, just lost in wonder at what he's seeing. He's never seen a digimon of such small size pack so much power.

Suddenly, another glow appears. The boys looks and are even more surprised. There's Katherine, actually glowing herself. Her messed up hair is now completely loose and flowing like it's underwater, and she's almost clothed by what looks like magical water. She walks towards the barrier as if in a trance and places both of her hands on it. Outside the barrier, the Tracker is starting to lose a little steam but keeps attacking. When Katherine touches the water barrier, both she and Niximon glow water colored blue even more, whirlpools appear on the barrier, and from them come perfect circle water attacks, larger than an average adult human. Several attacks hit the Tracker over and over again until he can no longer shoot tar, plus his nose is full of water and he sneezes. One more water ball sends him packing, at least far enough for them to make a good head start.

As the two glows fade, the water barrier disappears, leaving behind water showering down on them like rain. Niximon reverts back to her baby form and collapses, as does Katherine.

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Intern tries to fix the jeep while Tai sits on a tree trunk with his injured foot propped up on a box. Flunky is unconscious in the back of the jeep, tangled up in the same web stuff they were earlier. Intern has given his brother a sedative so he won't wake anytime soon to fight them. Neither Tai nor Intern are quite sure how they beat him, somehow Tai avoided his attacks and just punched him in the face. Fluffy is only a few yards away from them, watching them like a hawk. Tai feels quite uneasy about that.

"Are you sure she isn't going to come eat us?" ask Tai.

Intern nods; "I'm sure. Poor thing, her tummy's sick after that forced regurgitation. Her hunger won't kick in again for at least a day or two. But don't go near her, she'll still kill you."

"You don't have to tell me twice;" assures Tai; "By the way, I'm Tai Kamiya, what's your name?"

"What do you want to call me?"

Tai's completely caught off guard by that; "What do you mean? What do your friends call you?"

"Friends?" replies Intern as if he's never heard the word before; "Well, Yoshi, I mean Miss Yoshida; and Professor call me Flakey, human waste, (Beep), or It. Sally and the others call me Screaming Worm of Vomit. My brother used to call me Pebble, as in a pebble in his shoe. Lately he's been calling he's just called Vomit and Old (Beep), Loser if he feels like being nice…."

"Are you kidding me?" yells a shocked Tai; "No no no! You're name? Real name."

"My ' _Real_ ' name?" Intern's surprised by that; "As in legal name on a birth certificate?"

"Yes;" answers Tai; "What's your name?"

Intern's moved; "Jeez, nobody's ever asked me that before. Well, honestly I don't remember. I don't even think there is any record of our births or anything. Professor had Intern Flakey Pebble put on my license. I think way back when my sister called me Sad, or maybe Sid, until she started calling me Pebble and (Beep) at our brother's insistence, or threats. If we were alone, she'd sometimes call me Big Brother. We called him Boss or Big Shot at his insistence."

Tai can't take anymore of this; "How about I call you Yujin (Pal) for now?"

"Yujin?" asked the shocked intern; "But that's too, humane, nice. People are only nice to use you for something, then when they don't need you anymore, they throw you out like garbage."

"No they don't."

Suddenly, they can hear the eerie shriek of the Tracker in the distance. Intern, or rather now Yujin, turns in that direction; "The Tracker's in distress! But how? Even Fluffy avoids him?" Tai springs to his feet, once again forgetting about his injured ankle, feeling optimistic. "What? I feel mana coming from that direction;" says Yujin; "And quite a bit of it."

Tai's confused; "What's mana? Is that a good thing? No wait; we need to get there, NOW! Then we'll go rescue the others."

"You may want this;" Yujin reaches into his pocket and presents Tai with his digivice; "Sorry I didn't have time to nab your phone too."

"That's fine;" Tai puts his digivice back into his pocket; "Let's get going."

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Agumon had made his way to Niximon, gently shaking her awake; "Da Da."

"Baby, Kat that was AWSOME!"

Katherine slowly gets up to see Izzy staring wide-eyed at her!

"Katherine, how did you do that? I've never seen power like that come from a human before."

Katherine takes out both her digivice and the amulet, the latter showing the last of a very faint glow; "I don't know. It just felt, natural."

"I didn't know humans could attack like digimon;" adds Agumon; "And Nixie here just skipped two levels. That never happens."

"I can't believe what I just saw;" says Izzy; "I've never seen anything like that before? Did that come from Niximon, or you?"

"I think both of us;" answers Katherine, still feeling some strange energy within her. Did the amulet awaken something within her?

"Tentomon!" remembers Izzy.

"Here he is;" says Agumon returning the cube to Izzy. It's only then that Izzy realizes his burned arm has suddenly healed. Neither of the girls have burned marks on them either. In fact, it looks as if Katherine's previous injuries have suddenly and miraculously healed up, as have Agumon's.

"What happened to our injuries?"

Agumon's stomach brings them back to reality; "I can't take this anymore. I need food and I need it NOW!"

Agumon collapses into the water, Izzy picks him up; "Yes, let's get to the convenient store. Come on you two."

The boys exit the pond and get a little ahead. Katherine turns back and places her hand over the water as Nixie looks on. She manages to lift a small amount of water into the air and smiles.


End file.
